











IpffW 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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Cliap.:!...... Copyright No. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. . 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 



BY 



REV. THOMAS S. HUBERT. 



Edited, with an Introduction, by Jno. J. Tigert, LL.D. 



"Do the work of an evangelist. ^^ {3 Tim» iv, S,) 




Nashville, Tenn. : 

Publishing House Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Barbee & S^riTH, Agents. 

1895. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S95, 

By Thomas S. Hubert, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO 

THE HONORABLE FRANK ADAMS, 

OF JASPER, FLORIDA; 

A CHRISTIAN STATESMAN, A FAITHFUL PARISHONER, A SINCERE FRIEND, 

A BROTIiER BELOVED IN THE KINGDOM AND FELLOWSHIP OF 

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST; 

THE AUTHOR, 

WITH MUCH AND GENUINE PLEASURE, 

DEDICATES THIS COOK; 

A VERY HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THAT WORTH THAT MAKES A MAN, 

AND THAT LOYALTY TO GOD THAT MAKES 

A CHRISTIAN. 



(3) 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction 7 

Chapter I. 
Promise and Prophecy 

Chapter II. 
Solicitude for Zion 32 

Ch:apter II r. 
In the Church 49 

Chapter IV. 
Solicitude for Sinners 82 

Chapter Y. 
Revival Prayer > 107 

Chapter YI. 
Revival Preaching 131 

Chapter YII. 
Revival Services 152 

Chapter YIII. 
Revival Methods, or Dealing with Sinners 179 

Chapter IX. 
Revival Workers 197 

Chapter X. 
Power from on High 217 

Chapter XL 
Instantaneity 236 

Chapter XII. 

Abandonment to the AYork 255 

(5) 



INTRO DUCTIOK 

The following treatise is designed by its author to be, and 
is, eminently practical, and will therefore be useful. Save the 
work by Dr. J. O. Peck on a similar theme, I know no other 
publication that covers the ground of this book. Mr. Hubert is 
a consecrated pastor who knows how to conduct revivals in his 
own charge. In these he has had uniform and distinguished 
success; his experience in these meetings, and his desire that 
the conditions of success which his observation attests should be 
made known to all who seek the best results along these lines, 
have prompted him to the composition and publication of these 
chapters. He has zeal according to knowledge, and communi- 
cates both with warmth and clearness. 

No pastor should be satisfied who is unable to conduct pro- 
tracted meetings and to secure conversions in his own charge. 
Fruits of his ministry he must see ; the divine seal to his com- 
mission he must have. If soul-saving is the highest aspiration 
of his heart, Mr. Hubert's volume may be commended to him 
as the very help he is looking for. " Jno. J. Tigert. 

Nashville, Tenn., October 4, 1895. 

(7) 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 



CHAPTEE I. 

PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 

FAITH ill revivals of religion is the natural and 
inevitable result of reading the Bible with an 
honest mind. They are promised the Church, and 
their coming is celebrated in exultant prophecy. 
Ezekiel (xxxiv. 26) foretells: "There shall be show- 
ers of blessing." Peter publishes: "Times of re- 
freshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." 
(Acts iii. 19.) These two terms, "Showers of Bless- 
ing " and " Times of Refreshing," mean what evan- 
gelical Christians mean when they use the term, 
"Revivals of Religion." 

The awakening of a church or a community to the 
demands and possibilities of the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ we would recognize as a revival of reli- 
gion. An awakening of sinners to their peril and 
need of help from on high; an awakening of back- 
sliders to penitence and prayer on account of "bless- 
edness" and '^ peaceful hours" lost; an awakening of 
the idle to zeal and of the lukewarm to fervor of 
spirit; an awakening of believers to the pursuit of 
holiness; a general awakening of souls to "a desire 
to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from 
their sins " — all this enters into a revival of religion. 

(9) , 



10 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

It is true, that which we sometimes hear, " The life 
of a church ought to be the life of a revival." Special 
seasons for the promotion of the work of God ought 
not to be necessary. Churches ought to be always 
zealously affected in saving sinners and perfecting 
saints. Every day the truth as it is in Jesus ought 
to have new triumphs. But what ought to be has 
never fully been in this world of ours since the 
"mortal taste" of forbidden fruit in Eden; and our 
churches, made up of members gathered from the 
human and not the angel family, from a fallen and 
not an unfallen race, come far short of being what 
they ought to be and what there is need that they be. 
In spite of all our theories, there come periods of 
decline and decay. '' The Spirit speaketh expressly, 
that in the latter times some shall depart from the 
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines 
of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their 
conscience seared with a hot iron." (1 Tim. iv. 1, 
2. ) Men get to be " lovers of their own selves, covet- 
ous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to par- 
ents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, 
truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, de- 
spisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high- 
minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 
having a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof." (2 Tim. iii. 2-5.) What must we do when 
this condition confronts us and our theory? Shut 
our eyes to it? Apologize for it? Extenuate it? 
We will lose our candlestick from its place. We 
will be driven out of the vineyard intrusted to our 
care. The kingdom will be taken away from us. 
There is but one thing we can do — get a revival of 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 11 

religioij; call upon God for the showers of blessing 
and times of refreshing from his presence promised 
and foretold; strengthen the things that remain, 
repent and turn to God, be zealous and do works 
meet for repentance; take up the labors, the sacri- 
fices, the consecration incident to a protracted meet- 
ing; go out after the perishing, gather in the lost, 
entreat the backsliders, teach the young the fear of 
the Lord; pray, testify, sing; "reprove, rebuke, ex- 
hort with all long-suffering and doctrine;" instant in 
season and out of season, with enthusiasm ordinary 
and extraordinary, with methods regular and irregu- 
lar, "do the work of an evangelist," press the cause 
of God, lift up the cross of Christ, make way and 
room for the Holy Ghost, till salvation comes with 
" wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth 
beneath." 

Nor does a revival of religion necessarily presup- 
pose moral lapse and spiritual declension. A church 
well organized and equipped will have its consecra- 
tion again and again enlisted in assaults upon sin 
and unbelief that will break their pow^er and save 
men. There is no antagonism between the growth 
of a church, its daily progress, and a revival of reli- 
gion. Daily growth in the orchard or field we rec- 
ognize as the promise and prophecy of a harvest. 
Just as truly does the ordinary increase of the faith 
and hope and love of churches promise and prophesy 
the extraordinary seasons of calling upon God and 
effort for the salvation of souls. It is none the less 
true in grace than it is in nature and providence that 
the Almighty has varied agencies of blessing. He 
sheds forth upon the world the morning dew, and his 



12 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

clouds pour out timely rains. So we find at Hosea 
xiv. 5, "I will be as the dew unto Israel;" and we 
find at Psalm Ixxii. 6, *'He shall come down like 
rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the 
earth." 

When it is necessary that it begin there, the re- 
vival usually begins in the church. A church revived 
is a church supplied with soul-saving and saint-mak- 
ing power. A church that has parted company with 
the world and declared war on sin, a church that has 
put on the whole armor of God, will *' prove what is 
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." 
When churches are pure, family worship observed, 
social piety promoted, and the presence and blessing 
of the Holy Spirit invoked without ceasing, mightily 
will grow and prevail the word of our salvation. 

The coming of a revival of religion is always as 
the Church desires and determines. Of course we 
cannot set times and seasons for the Almighty; nor 
need we. Long ago he said: ''Behold, now is the 
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 
(2 Cor. vi. 2.) Before that he said: ''Say not ye. 
There are yet four months and then cometh the har- 
vest? behold, I say unto you. Lift up your eyes, and 
look on the fields; for they are white already to har- 
vest." (John iv. 35.) There is neither Scripture 
nor sense for the notion that revivals of religion are 
''awfully mysterious " interpositions of Divine power, 
coming, like comets to ignorant minds, contrary to 
all law. There never has been a revival of religion 
for which there was not prayer and faith and effort. 
The history of a revival may for awhile be involved 
in obscurity, but by and by it is developed that some 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 13 

one, or some two or tliree, stood on the tower, calling 
upon God and keeping their watch. The promises 
are of no worth to ns, if we cannot plead them at the 
throne of grace. Of what value are the prayers given 
us by the Holy Ghost — "O Lord, revive thy work" 
(Hab. iii. 2); ''Come from the four winds, O breath, 
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live" 
(Ezek. xxxvii. 9); "Spare thy people, O Lord, and 
give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen 
should rule over them" (Joel ii. 17); and ''Thy 
kingdom come " (Matt. vi. 10) — if God does not mean 
to hear us and answer us? One of the greatest 
revivalists contended: "Men cannot do the devil's 
work more effectually than by preaching up the sov- 
ereignty of God as a reason why we should not put 
forth efforts to produce a revival." On the other 
hand, we are to find in the sovereignty of God, and 
the immutability of his word, and the decrees of 
his grace, inspiration for the work of an evangelist 
wherever man is found. 

There are laws of grace, and they are as unerr- 
ing and as eternal as the laws that keep the planets 
in their places. Churches which undertake, accord- 
ing to the will and w^ord of God, that to which they 
are called, do not fail of success. The converting 
power of the Holy Ghost always attends the efforts 
of holy, tireless churches. We need not hope to pro- 
mote the w^ork of God with our zeal and consecration 
adjusted to the opinions of the world, the whims of 
society, or the spirit of a backslidden generation; but 
when w^e meet certain conditions, known and read of 
' all, we may boldly predict an outpouring of saving- 
grace. There is no doubt of this. It admits of no 



14 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

qualification. To question never so modestly is to 
turn atheist. The promise will stand the test. The 
prophecy is not a cunningly-devised fable. The 
word of our God is true. 

The following striking illustration of the truth for 
which we are pleading is found in one of the sermons 
of Eev. Sam P. Jones: "I was walking on the rail- 
road track just above my town with the pastor of 
oar church. He was a younger man than myself. 
* Jones,' he said, 'we will have a cyclone this after- 
noon about two o'clock.' I said, 'Have you gotten 
out your almanac? ' *.No,' he replied. ' Well,' I said, 
' if you have got so you can predict storms and cy- 
clones, you ought to get out one.' *I am not joking,' 
he said; 'don't you see how the wind has changed? 
Just now it was in our faces; now it's at our back; 
in another minute or two it will be on our right, and 
then on our left. You look out about two o'clock.' 
Well, we went out and took dinner with my brother, 
and then he drove us into town in his buggy. We 
got home just about two o'clock. My brother was 
around at the back, and we heard him suddenly 
shout, 'Look! look!' We ran out to the back door, 
and there was one of those fearful cyclones, carrying- 
houses and trees and almost everything in its sweep. 
I stood watching it in its deadly course, and it passed 
just a mile below us. It was just about four hundred 
yards wide, and looked like a thousand coal-burning 
engines chained together. 'There's your cyclone,' 
said I to the pastor. ^I will tell you why it had to 
come,' he said; 'because conditions met. Whenever 
the proper conditions meet, we shall have a cyclone.' 
Now, brethren, I just want to say that whenever con- 



PROMISE AND PriOPHECY. 15 

ditioiis meet, you will have a moral cyclone that will 
uproot the evil o£ this community and lay bare the 
giants of sin in the land." 

May God forgive our cloddish unbelief, increase 
our faith, renew our hope, inflame our trust in him, 
and disturb us with expectations of mighty rushing 
winds, descending fire, weeping multitudes, and even 
w^orlds turned upside down! 

The promised and foretold show^ers of blessing and 
times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord 
have never failed the Church. They have brought it 
deliverance from every conceivable phase of apostasy, 
and progress and prosperity in every spiritual bless- 
ing. Was not John the Baptist a revivalist, an 
outdoor evangelist? What a sensationalist he was! 
What a stir he made in all Judea! A Salvation Army 
in one man! The apostles were great revivalists. 
Peter, Philip, Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and the rest of 
them, were advertised as the men who had "turned 
the world upside down." Luther was a revivalist, 
and a brave, uncompromising one. The strokes of 
the hammer which nailed his righteous protest to the 
door of the Wittenberg church are still sounding and 
telling of salvation for all, salvation without money 
and without price. John Knox spent himself and 
was spent in the work of an evangelist; and who can 
compute Scotland's indebtedness to him? He being 
dead yet speaks to the world, as he did to the people 
of Edinburgh from his window pulpit. What shall 
we say of John Wesley? He claimed the world for 
his parish; preached through a long life, at early 
morning hours and late at night; was mobbed, 
rocked, egged, lashed, thrown into ponds and streams, 



16 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

dragged by the lieels through fields and streets, al- 
most beaten to death, hounded from place to place; 
finding enmity and afflictions everywhere; often and 
long in hunger, in cold, in weariness, in friendless- 
ness; still loving the lost as women love their chil- 
dren, and w^eeping over cities as men weep over 
graves, and intent upon nothing else than to testify 
that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death 
for every man, and that mercy is boundless and free. 
What would our American Christianity have been 
without the labors of Whitefield, Edwards, the Ten- 
nents, Davies, Asbury, Jesse Lee, Maffitt, Finney, 
Caughey, and others who were inspired and conse- 
crated to the rescue of the perishing? Here is an 
exercise for the people called Methodists: Get a 
history of your Church (Bishop McTyeire's or Dr. 
Stevens's), begin at the first chapter, and as you go 
through it tear out every page on which there is a 
record of revival work. Then read what is left. Ah, 
what would there be left to read? The best would 
all be gone. If the Methodist Church has been of 
any service at all to the world, it has been as a re- 
vival Church. To be a revival Church is its calling 
and election. Its calling and election? Yes, yes; 
and its honor and glory! 

It was the revival of religion which interposed and 
met the tide of foreign infidelity and deviltry sweep- 
ing upon our nation at the beginning of the present 
century and saved us from its damning pollution to 
the ennobling, purifying influences of the love of 
God and the truth as it is in Jesus. It was the re- 
vival of religion which interposed and met the tide 
of population rolling westward in the thirties and 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 1? 

the forties and the fifties, and turned its threatening 
powers of evil and ruin into channels of pious pros- 
perity. It was the revival of religion which inter- 
posed and met the disappointed soldiers of the South- 
land, Avhen, after a long and unsuccessful war, they 
returned to their desolated fields and broken fam- 
ilies, and renewed their faith in God and filled their 
hearts with hope and joy, though they ate their bread 
in affliction and mingled their drink with tears. We 
must have revivals of religion! Nothing else has 
succeeded in the past. Nothing else will ever suc- 
ceed. We must have the showers — the showers of 
blessing — the Spirit, the power from on high, the 
breath that aw^akes the dead, the grace that conquers 
unbelief and astounds multitudes; these we must 
have and will have! 

It is estimated that four-fifths of the Christians 
of our land were converted in revivals. The great 
awakening led by President Edwards and his friends 
went on without intermission till over thirty thou- 
sand were saved. The first ten years of the revival 
inspired by Finney enrolled two hundred thousand 
converts, and in 1857-58 there was for seven or eight 
weeks an average enrollment of fifty thousand a week. 
God gave James Caughey twenty-two thousand pro- 
fessions of religion and six thousand professions of 
entire sanctification during the six years of his evan- 
gelism in England. It is believed on trustworthy 
evidence that Eev. Sam P. Jones has influenced to 
the life that is in Christ Jesus over half a million 
people, and that there are four hundred ministers of 
the gospel who were converted in his meetings. The 
revivals conducted by Thomas Harrison and Dwight 
2 



18 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

L. Moody often give the churches of a city two and 
three thousand applications for membership. 

" But they don't hold out — those who profess in 
exciting revivals!" This objection is easily traced 
to the father of lies. They do hold out! The evi- 
dence is abundant. 

Dr. Talmage says : '' In all our churches the vast 
majority of the useful people are those who are 
brought in under great aw^akenings, and they hold 
out. Who are the prominent men in the United 
States in churches, in prayer meetings, in Sabbath 
schools? For the most part they are the products of 
great awakenings. I have noticed that those who 
are brought into the kingdom of God through reviv- 
als have more persistence and more determination in 
the Christian life than those who came in under a 
low state of religion. People born in an ice house 
may live, but they w^ill never get over the cold they 
caught in the ice house. A cannon ball depends 
upon the impulse with which it starts for how far it 
shall go and how swiftly; and the greater the revival 
force w^th which a soul is started the more far-reach- 
ing and far-resounding will be the execution." 

A minister in one of our Southern cities was 
preaching a sermon against revivals. He said: *'I 
understand that some years ago you had Harrison to 
hold a meeting in this city, and the news went out 
that hundreds were converted, who united wdth your 
churches. But where are they now? How many 
held out? It is reasonable to suppose that some of 
them joined this church. Now, if there are any 
present who were converted in that meeting and w^ho 
are enjoying religion, will you please stand up?" 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 19 

There was nothing in the proposition to awaken faith 
or to enliven the heart, but over two hundred sprang 
to their feet, and their faces to look upon were as the 
faces of angels. The preacher escaped to his next 
argument (?), and looked as if he wanted to escape 
m propria persona. 

The Hon. Chauncey Depew, of New York, gives 
the following testimony: "In the revival of my boy- 
hood days the hardest drinkers and most profane 
swearers in the town were captured and baptized. 
The liquor saloons were practically closed, and, if I 
remember rightly, a number of them had to go out of 
business. I recall the significant fact, too, that the 
evenings developed a good deal of talent among the 
young men in the village in speaking upon religious 
subjects. Several of them entered the ministry after- 
wards who had no intention before of any such career. 
And as I look back over the thirty odd years, and re- 
call such people as I can, whose cases were most im- 
pressed upon my memory at the time, because their 
conversion was thought to be very remarkable, very 
few w^ent back to their old wmys. Of those who 
joined the church and were admitted to membership, 
a very small percentage dropped out. I doubt if any 
so far fell aw^ay that their relations with the church 
had to be violently severed. The effect of the revival 
upon the people of the village was evident for years. 
It made the towm distinct from other river towns 
in the absence from the community of disorderly 
persons — in other w^ords, drunken brawders, roughs, 
and disreputable people of both sexes. I know that 
for many years the arrest and locking up of any- 
one in the village lockup w^as such an unusual oc- 



20 EEYIYALS OF EELTGION. 

currence that it excited the interest of the whole 
town." 

Tlie witness of Bishop George F. Pierce may well 
interest and inspire us. He says: " I have seen thou- 
sands subdued into reverence and awe, even when 
they refused to yield to God. I have seen the char- 
acter of a county reformed by a single camp meet- 
ing. I have seen a solemn spell descend and abide 
upon a city population for days together. Stores 
were closed, the hammer was laid down, saloons with- 
out a customer, diversions and amusements all for- 
gotten, and the church and religion occupied every 
mind, engaged every tongue, and appropriated all 
the time. The Lord added daily to the church, so 
mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." 

The hackneyed objection that *' it isn't desirable to 
take large numbers into the church at a time" ex- 
hibits a condition of spirit that needs to be repented 
of, or else utter ignorance of the mind and word of 
God. How often do we read of the Saviour, "When 
he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compas- 
sion on them!" He loved masses of men, and called 
them to come unto him. He sought, not just the 
solitary, the few, the narrow circle — but thousands 
and tens of thousands. His religion has aptly been 
termed "the religion of the multitude." The first 
day it was preached it lifted three thousand out of 
the pit and miry clay, set them upon the Rock of 
Ages, and crowned their heads with songs and ever- 
lasting joy. 

When the President of the United States opened 
Oklahoma to settlers he did not require that they 
should cross the lines in straggling groups, and that 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 21 

tliey should take possession of the territory slowly 
and by degrees. It was neither his expectation nor 
desire that the settlement of that new country should 
proceed gradually through a score or two of years. 
When the signal guns were fired thousands started 
on the rush, and ere the day was done Oklahoma was 
settled. Why should it be otherwise with that king- 
dom opened up to all believers? *'The Sj^irit and 
the bride say, Come." How? Is there not some 
suggestion of a rush in the words, " The kingdom of 
heaven suflfereth violence, and the violent take it by 
force?" (Matt. xi. 12.) Of course there will be ex- 
citement, a great deal of it, and much of a stir, but 
let them come. The promise is unto all. 

Here is life and free salvation 
Offered to the whole creation. 

Was the " exceeding great army " which stood up 
when Ezekiel prophesied, and the Breath came from 
the four winds, a type of the conversion of handfuls 
in our cities and villages? ''Who are these that fly 
as a cloud, and as doves to the windows?" (Isa. Ix. 
8.) These are the weary and heavy laden, sinners 
weak and wounded, the sin-sick and sore, the guilt- 
oppressed and soul-distressed. They have heard of 
the "gate ajar," and now 

In crowding ranks on every side arise. 
Demanding life, impatient for the skies. 

Nor do they come and seek in vain. '^ They shall ob- 
tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
flee away." (Isa. xxxv. 10.) 

Revivals of religion are of varied type. The writer 
has never seen tv/o exactly alike. The Almighty is 



22 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

not bound to one method. The King of kings drives 
more than one chariot. The Holy Spirit is a free 
spirit: is slave to no measure, agency, or programme. 
So it is written, "There are diversities of operations, 
but it is the same God which worketh all in all." 
(1 Cor. xii, 6.) 

The revival which shook the city of Jerusalem, 
nearly nineteen hundred years ago, was inaugurated 
with a visible " answer by fire " to the prayers of the 
disciples. Three thousand were converted the first 
day of its progress. On a subsequent day there 
were five thousand to believe and hail the power of 
Jesus' name. That revival continued a good long 
time, and the record is that daily multitudes were 
saved and added to the church. We have given us 
in the Acts of the Apostles (xix.) the account of a 
revival of altogether another type. It was promoted 
in the city of Ephesus by the apostle Paul. Its be- 
ginning was a day of small things. Its progress was 
in the face of fierce opposition. The apostle had to 
change his plans and move his meeting. " The word 
of the Lord Jesus" was preached through three 
years; "both Jews and Greeks heard it," the Lord 
gave it witness, and on a day when the powers of 
evil meant to exalt themselves against it and its de- 
voted exponent, " fear fell on them all, and the name 
of the Lord Jesus was magnified." 

Wesley's account of the beginning of that revival 
from which Methodism sprang is given in these 
words: " Between fifty and sixty years ago God raised 
up a few young men in the University of Oxford to 
testify those grand truths, which were then little 
attended to: that without holiness no man shall see 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 23 

the Lord; that this holiness is the work of God, who 
worketh in us both to will and to do; that he doeth 
it of his own good pleasure, merely for the merits of 
Christ; that this holiness is the mind that was in 
Christ, enabling ns to walk as he also walked; that 
no man can be thus sanctified till he be justified; and 
that we are justified by faith alone. These great 
truths they declared on all occasions, in private and 
in public; having no design but to promote the glory 
of God, and no desire but to save souls from death. 
From Oxford, where it first appeared, the little leaven 
spread w4der and wider. More and more saw the truth 
as it is in Jesus, and received it in the love there- 
of. More and more found ^redemption through the 
blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins.' They 
were born again of his Spirit, and filled with right- 
eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It 
afterwards spread to every part of the land, and a lit- 
tle one became a thousand. It then spread into North 
Britain and Ireland; and a few years after into New 
York, Pennsylvania, and many other provinces in 
America, even as high as New Foundland and Nova 
Scotia. So that, although at first this ' grain of mus- 
tard seed' was 'the least of all the seed,' yet in a few 
years it grew into a 'large tree, and put forth great 
branches.' " 

A page from the "Memoirs of Finney" goes in 
here well, illustrating further the "diversities of op- 
erations." In the spring of one of the years just be- 
fore he placed himself under the care of the Pres- 
bytery as a candidate for the gospel ministry, the 
church of which he was a member " began to decline 
in engagedness and zeal for God." He says: "This 



24 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

greatly oppressed me, as it did also the young con- 
verts generally. About this time I read in the news- 
paper an article under the head of 'A Revival Re- 
vived.' The substance of it was, that in a certain 
place there had been a revival during the winter; that 
in the spring it declined; and that, upon earnest 
prayer being offered for the continued outpouring of 
the Spirit, the revival was powerfully revived. This 
article set me into a flood of weeping. I was at that 
time boarding with Mr. Gale (the pastor), and I took 
the article to him. I was so overcome with a sense 
of the divine goodness in hearing and answering 
prayer, and with a felt assurance that he would hear 
and answer prayer for the revival of his work in 
Adams, that I went through the house weeping aloud 
like a child. Mr. Gale seemed surprised at my feel- 
ings and my expressed confidence that God would re- 
vive his work. The article made no such impression 
on him as it did on me. At the next meeting of the 
young people I proposed that we should observe a 
closet concert of prayer for the revival of Gcd's work; 
that we should pray at sunrise, at noon, and at sun- 
set in our closets, and continue this for one week, 
when we should come together again and see what 
further was to be done. No other means were used 
for the revival of God's work. But the spirit of 
prayer was immediately poured out wonderfully upon 
the young converts. Before the week was out I 
learned that some of them, when they would attempt 
to observe the season of prayer, would lose all their 
strength, and be unable to rise to their feet, or even 
to stand upon their knees in their closets; and that 
some would lie prostrate on the floor and pray with 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 25 

unutterablegroanings for the outpouring of the Spirit 
of God. The Spirit was poured out, and before the 
week ended all the meetings were thronged. . . . 
The young people held out well. The converts, so 
far as 'I know, were almost universally sound, and 
have been thoroughly efficient Christians." 

Bishop George F. Pierce Jias written: "I have seen 
revivals of several types, and yet, judged by their 
fruits, all genuine. There was a revival in Augusta, 
Ga.j in 1832, beginning in May and running through 
the year. It was not a sweeping flood, but a steady 
rain. It had i^ower enough to work and hold the 
congregation all the time. The regular order of serv- 
ice was maintained. Only one extra prayer meeting 
was set up, and that upon a vacant night. Karely 
more than fifteen ijenitents at the altar. These were 
invited to all the social meetings, and conversions oc- 
curred at every service, private and public. The in- 
terest never flagged. At the winding up of the year 
the church record shov^ed a gain of two hundred. 
Some of them remain to this day; some have fallen 
asleep; very few fell away. ... I will state another 
case for encouragement and example: In 1846 Rev. 
C. W. Key was on the Sparta circuit. It was a year 
of very general prosperity in the Conference. Re- 
vival power came down and rested on every appoint- 
ment. Brother Key had no ministerial help, except 
when I got home from the district to rest a day or 
two. The whole circuit w^as on fire. The preacher 
divided himself out as best he could, but with all his 
zeal he could be only in one place at a time. Now, 
then, what? Close up? Send the people away? Drive 
the doves from the windows? No! no! Each church 



26 BEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

took charge of itself. The brethren went to work, 
and lay labor was blessed along with clerical. No 
neighborhood suffered for lack of service." 

Peter Cartwright once began a revival in a ball- 
room. Fifteen of the dancers were converted. The 
next day he preached, and fifteen more were led out 
of the love of the world into the love of God. The 
revival triumphed over all o^Dposition. 

Mr. O. E. Burch recently gave the Epivorth Herald, 
Chicago, the account of a revival which began in a 
dance hall at Memphis, Mich. He was teaching the 
village school, and incidentally learned that the pas- 
tor of the Methodist Church was not receiving enough 
to support himself and family. After consultation 
it was decided to have a donation party for the bene- 
fit of the preacher, and as the village hotel was the 
most suitable place it was announced to be held there. 
The people came with generous donations for the 
pastor, and the evening was pleasantly spent. But 
about ten o'clock the ballroom was thrown open in 
all the glory of brilliant lights and rapturous music. 
Some of the young folks were going to have a dance. 
Expostulation was in vain. They were going to 
dance; nothing could stop them. The Rev. O. San- 
born, from an adjoining circuit, was present. "He 
said he would see what he could do. In company 
with the pastor, he ascended the stairs to meet a 
merry scene. Everything was ready for the cry, 'On 
with the dance! ' The two preachers, arm in arm, be- 
gan to march back and forth through the room, sing- 
ing as they marched: 

We're going home, we're going home, 
We're going home to die no more. 



PEOMISE AND PROPHECY. 27 

Consternation spread. Some flecl from the room, but 
most of the crowd seated themselves. Mr. Sanborn 
at once began to exhort from the words, ' One thing 
thou lackest.' Then followed an earnest prayer." 
The preacher was wiser than he knew. That night 
there was pungent conviction, and very soon all the 
town was rejoicing in the work of God. In less than 
a year's time, Mr. Sanborn being sent there by the 
next Conference, there were more than three hundred 
conversions, and Methodism was established on broad 
and deep foundations. 

In a letter to the Central Methodist, Catlettsburg, 
Ky., Rev. R. H. Rivers, D.D., who has lately gone to 
his crown and throne, gave the following instance: 
"Many years ago, while engaged in prayer at the 
opening of a school for young ladies, of which I had 
charge, I heard weeping among some of the students. 
At the close of the prayer I went up to one of the 
young ladies, who was deeply affected, and inquired 
into the cause of her weeping. She told me she was 
sorry for her sins, and desired salvation. Again we 
all engaged in prayer, and she was powerfully con- 
verted. The work went on. Tlie power of religion 
broke up our recitations. The entire school felt the 
influence, and more than a dozen souls were converted 
during the songs and prayers of the college on that 
day. That revival soon took hold of the town, and 
embraced in its influence a large number of the citi- 
zens. It became one of the most noted revivals that 
ever swept over Athens, Ala. Its influence was felt 
in all tlie churches, and for years." 

The year 1892 this writer was preacher in charge 
of the church at Punta Gorda, Fla. In the spring 



28 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

there was a gracious revival of religion which tripled 
the membership of the church, and on through the 
year i30wer and demonstration attended the preached 
word. The people of God had closer and closer walk 
with him, and as never before they began to live to 
glorify him. Late in the fall there came a rainy 
prayer meeting night. Yery few were at the house 
of the Lord, but nearly all in the Spirit. According 
to his word, our Saviour and Master was there. We 
heard his voice, and it told of love to us. Prayer 
was fervent and importunate; soDg was with the soul 
and all that was within us. During the exj)osition 
of the Scripture the people began to Aveep. Keady 
to improve the occasion, the pastor made a proposi- 
tion, and many answered it, bowing at the altar. The 
service was profitable, and promised better things. 
The preacher said: "We cannot stop with this; we 
must have another service to-morrow night. Come 
back, and bring others with you." And when he got 
heme he praised God, sayiug to his wife: "A revival 
has started." Nor was he mistaken. The next night 
• there was another blessing-crowned service, and soon 
the meeting was sweeping everything before it. It 
was a wonderful time of refreshing: many professions 
of faith, many reclamations of the backsliding, many 
additions to tlie church. 

There are no two evangelists who work alike. It is 
a mistake to try to conform a revival to a prearranged 
plan or theory for its management. After the first 
service this writer seldom knows what he is going to 
preach till he is into the service. Often his thoughts 
are turned to subjects and texts he never had contem- 
plated discussing, and so strong have been the influ- 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 29 

ences of the Spirit to which his mind is subjected that 
he must take the preaching that is thus given him. 
Nor can the writer tell beforehand what the proposi- 
tion will be. The only thing for which he provides 
is to be led of the Holy Ghost. Our God is rich in 
resources. It is not our part to dictate to him how to 
accomplish his will in the world. People of God, it 
makes no difference how the Wesleys managed their 
meetings, nor how the sons of thunder preached long 
ago, nor what methods were successful in the days of 
our fathers; it makes no difPerence how revivals were 
conducted when grace first taught your heart to fear, 
and then all your fears relieved. Our stay is not in 
measures, but in God; our faith is not in accidents 
and varying circumstances, but in the eternal and su- 
preme authority and power of the Holy Ghost. We 
can have revivals without altars, without mourners' 
benches, without anxious seats, without inquiry rooms; 
we can have revivals with organs and without organs, 
singing old-fashioned songs and up-to-date songs, 
using authorized hymnals and unauthorized hym- 
nals; gathering the peox:le in consecrated churches, or 
other places where prayer is wont to be made, and 
under brush arbors and tents, in log schoolhouses 
and in barns, in groves and on street corners, and by 
the seashore. The measure of to-day's blessing must 
not be what we saw or heard or experienced yester- 
day or last year. Our faith must measure larger 
plans than those the fathers knew. The answers of 
Heaven are promised us exceeding abundantly above 
all our fathers have told us of the works in their days, 
exceeding abundantly above all that suits us the best, 
even " according to the riches of his glory," " the ex- 



30 EEYIYALS OF RELIGION. 

ceeding riches of grace in his kindness toward us 
through Clirist Jesus," "the multitude of his tender 
roercies," and "the working of his mighty power." 
Come and speak and do as thou wilt, O God of salva- 
tion! strike the peojjle dead with conviction and ter- 
ror, or make them shout and sing in sacred ecstasies! 
move them to repose in Christ, wdiether vv^itli emotions 
unto "observation" stirred, or excited as only in thy 
eye! repeat the wonders of the years of thy right 
hand, or lay bare thy arm in unheard-of amazements 
of grace and might! just "shed abroad a Saviour's 
love in these cold hearts of ours," and draw us nearer 
to thee and cleanse us from all sin, and "revive thy 
work in the midst of the years! " 

Eevivals of Eeligion, Promised Us and Foretold. 

Promised, — Does God promise them? He is faith- 
ful to his promises. "The word of the Lord is tried." 
(Ps. xviii. 30.) Lay hold of the promise, plead it at 
the mercy seat. The Lord will protect his word; he 
will remember and keep all the promises in which 
his peojjle have trust and hope and joy. 

Foretold, — What a sure word is the word of proph- 
ecy! One jot or tittle of it never fails. Times of re- 
freshing are coming. Let formalism do its worst, let 
worldliness put forth the fullness of its strength, let 
antichrists many arise and be enthroned, times "get 
out of joint," and hell the utmost of its resources 
engage — revivals of religion are coming! The day of 
Pentecost is nothing in comparison to days that are 
going to be. The long-ago years of the right hand 
of the Most High are nothing in comparison to dis- 
pensations that are soon to unfold. The God of 



PROMISE AND PROPHECY. 31 

Wesley is going to raise up mightier men than Wes- 
ley. It took Wesley fifty and more years to halfway 
Christianize one nation, while by and by our Lord 
Jesus Christ will have servants whose holy influence 
and sacred persuasion wall add unto his sovereignty 
nations in a day. 

We will believe the promise; w^e will seek and 
watch and wait for what is foretold; w^e will exult 
and make our boast in the word that endureth for- 
ever; we will proclaim the year of jubilee, the grace 
that brings salvation, the love that reaches unto the 
uttermost, the redemption of every creature, clean 
and unclean, the death that was for transgressors — 
yes, we wdll believe and pray and plead and labor and 
w^atch till "Glory in the highest" is ascribed our God 
by every tongue, by every heart, and peace and good 
W'ill abound throughout our world redeemed. 



CHAPTEE II. 

SOLICITUDE FOE ZION. 

IN the Bible the tenderest and most affecting terms 
are employed to disclose the relationship of the 
Church to Christ. The Church is his sister, his es- 
poused, his bride. He has joined his name to hers, 
his fortune to hers, his honor to hers. " The Lord lov- 
eth the gates of Zion," says the psalmist. (Ps. Ixxxvii. 
2. ) Paul tells us " Christ loved the Church, and gave 
himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it 
with the washing of water by the word, that he might 
present it to himself a glorious Church, not having 
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should 
be holy and without blemish." (Eph. v. 25-27.) 

The new heart that is given when the heart of stone 
is taken away brims with the love of Zion. The new 
life that begins when old things pass into forgetful- 
ness spends itself and is spent for Zion. After re- 
generation the interest and welfare of Zion become 
paramount, and are all-absorbing, all - controlling. 
The integrity and devotedness of the captive Jews of 
old, who wept w^hen they remembered desolated Je- 
rusalem!, and refused to be merry with the enemies 
of Zion, or to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, 
live in all whose lives are hid with Christ in God. 
With what glad hearts and free they sing: 

I love thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of thine abode, 
The Church our bless'd Eedeemer bought, 
With his own precious blood. 

(32) 



SOLICITUDE FOR ZION. 33 

If e'er my heart forget 

Her welfare or her woe, 
Let every joy this heart forsake 

And every grief o'erfiow. 
For her my tears shall fall, 

For her my prayers ascend, 
To her my cares and toils be given 

Till toils and cares shall end. 

The Church, thus euriched with the devotion and 
service of saints, with the love and care of God, can- 
not be identified with any outward organization. It 
is the universal company of souls separated from the 
world and called to heavenly places in Christ Jesus 
that commands this illustrious solicitude. To out- 
ward and visible organizations nothing is promised, 
save as they are identical with the spiritual body of 
the Lord. The New Testament supplies us with 
some melancholy illustrations of this reflection. The 
seven churches of Asia, which John beheld typified 
in golden candlesticks, were founded by the apostles, 
who had walked three years with the Master, and on 
whose heads sat tongues as of fire on the day of the 
fulfillment of the promise of the Father. In their 
midst appeared the Head of the Church all glorious. 
But when they became corrupt in faith and corrupt 
in practice, fallen from their first love, and neither 
hot nor cold, and refused to hearken to the Voice 
calling, ''Be zealous therefore and repent," their 
candlesticks were moved forever from their places. 
See the threatenings addressed to these backslidden 
churches, in the event of their failure to strengthen 
the things that remained, be revived, and fully re- 
stored: "I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight 
against them with the sword of my mouth," *'I will 
3 



34 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

cast her [an adulterous church] into a bed, and them 
that commit adultery with her into great tribulation." 
''I will spew thee out of my mouth." 

We may well note some of the things to which the 
Holy Ghost, giving utterance to devoted men, com- 
pares lapsed churches. "The daughter of Zion," 
says Isaiah (i. 8), "is left as a cottage in a vineyard, 
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged 
city." To Ezekiel's anointed eye backslidden Israel 
was as a valley full of bones, very many and very 
dry. "A cake not turned " is Hosea's homely figure. 
A tree marked for judgment, is the image according 
to John the Baptist. A sepulcher full of dead men's 
bones and reeking with corruption, is the simile our 
Lord employs. 

The prophet Isaiah began his ministry with a rela- 
tion of what "he saw concerning Judah and Jerusa- 
lem." (Isa. i. 1.) "The burden of Babylon," the 
city of godless greatness; "the burden of Moab," the 
land of idolatrous night; "the burden of Egypt," 
cursed with foolish x^rinces and bratish people — these 
came after the prophet had dealt with Judah, "laden 
with iniquity," and Jerusalem, head-sick and heart- 
sick. Those who would promote scriptural revivals 
must take due notice hereof and govern themselves 
accordingly. The church must first be revived and 
conformed to the will of God. Many considerations 
advertise and enforce this order. 

The chiirch must he revived if it woyJd have influence. 
All the world detests a sham. It matters nothing 
how lustily we sing, "I love thy kingdom. Lord" — if 
our lives are not consistent with our professions, 
w^e are the laughingstock of men, the playthings of 



SOLICITUDE FOR ZION. 35 

devils. It matters nothing liovv lustily we sing, ''I 
love thy kingdom, Lord " — if our hearts are set on 
worldly things, fashions, pleasures, riches, distinc- 
tions, we will receive nothing from God. Moody re- 
cently said: "I believe more people stumble over the 
inconsistencies of professed Christians than from any 
other cause. What is doing more harm to the cause 
of Christ than all the skepticism in the world is this 
cold, dead formalism, this conformity to the world, 
this professing of what we do not possess. The eyes 
of the world are upon us. I think it was George 
Fox who said that every Quaker ought to light up the 
country ten miles around him. If we were all brightly 
shining for the Master those about us would soon be 
reached, and there would be a shout of praise going 
to heaven." 

Consistency is one of the most potent qualities of 
character. It abashes pride, overcomes prejudice, 
subdues anger, and dismays opposition. " It was not 
my pastor's preaching, but my mother's living, that 
made me want to be a Christian," a young man said 
at a testimony meeting. One of the most stubborn 
opposers of Christianity in Southern Africa was the 
King of Pondoland, which country has just been an- 
nexed to Cape Colony. He has recently been much 
imxoressed, and has gone so far as to say: ''Up to 
this time I have not believed in the existence of a 
God, but now I must admit there is one." The occa- 
sion of the king's change of mind was the conversion 
of his chief officer, whose duties correspond to those 
of prime minister in other countries. The official 
had been a drunkard and a polygamist. He was 
truly led to Christ. On^ returning to his home he 



36 EEVIVALS OF EELIGION, 

destroyed a large and varied collection of intoxicating 
liquors, and sent away all his wives but one, making 
ample provision for their support. It was the news 
of what he did in these matters that caused his royal 
master to believe in God. The king said he was sure 
that none besides an almighty and all-good God could 
have so changed the man. A Chinaman who came to 
a missionary and requested to be baptized said, when 
asked where he had heard the gospel, that he had 
never heard it, but that he had seen it. A poor man 
in Ningpo, who had once been an opium smoker and 
a man of violent temper, gave his heart to Jesus 
Christ, who saved him from the opium habit, and 
made him loving and amiable in character. " So," 
said the applicant for baptism, '' I have seen your 
gospel and your religion, and I want to be a Chris- 
tian too." 

A Japanese girl said in a missionary meeting: 
"One spring my mother got some flower seeds — lit- 
tle, ugly, black things — and planted them. They 
grew and blossomed beautifully. One day a neigh- 
bor, seeing the flowers, said: 'Oh, how beautiful! 
Would you please give me some of these seed? ' Now, 
if the neighbor had just seen the seed she wouldn't 
have called for them. It w^as only when she saw 
how beautiful was the blossom she wanted the seed. 
And so with Christianity. When we speak to our 
friends of the truths of the Bible they seem to our 
friends so hard and uninteresting; but when they 
see these same truths blossoming out in holy, unself- 
ish, consecrated lives, then they say: 'How beautiful 
these lives!' " 

There was a missionary sent to India who was 



SOLICITUDE FOK ZION. 37 

uever able to learn the language. After a good many 
years of hard application to the task, he gave it up 
and asked the Missionary Board to recall him. A 
dozen brother missionaries, however, petitioned the 
board not to grant his request, stating that, although 
he could not make public addresses, or even succeed 
moderately in conversing with the natives, his un- 
blemished character and life of earnest, ready help- 
fulness gave him a wider influence than any other 
missionary there. When a convert was asked, "What 
is it to be a Christian?" he answered, "To be what 

Mr. is," and called the missionary's name. He 

was kept in India, and never preached a sermon; but 
when he died, all together, Christians and heathens, 
mourned and testified how rich he was in good works 
and what a x-^ower in the service of his Lord. 

Benjamin Franklin put it on record that he be-, 
lieved that a single generation of Christians who 
practiced the teachings of the Lord Jesus would 
change the face of the earth. And Finney often 
said: "If Christians would live one week only as if 
they believed the Bible, sinners would melt down be- 
fore them." 

Around Lake Titicaca there are a dozen smaller 
lakes which rise or fall w^ith the waters of the larger 
lake. Fill Titicaca and you fill all the others. Fill 
the church with all the fullness of God, and its life 
will fill the world. 

The clmrch must he revived if it tcottJd have any 
great success in promotinr/ the ivorh of God, Conver- 
sions may occur in lapsed churches, but they are few 
and far between. For a work of salvation there must 
be preparation. Formal singing, heavy praying, Ian- 



38 HEVIVALS OP EELIGION. 

guishing zeal, will never produce a revival. It is 
cruelty to call penitents to the altar or to announce 
an inquiry meeting until the church has been indued 
with power from on high and is ready for tbe help of 
the Lord against the mighty. An altar full of peni- 
tents, for whom there are none to pray, for whom 
there are no words fitly spoken, for whom there is no 
spiritual sympathy, has more than once distressed 
this writer's soul with a distress exceeding great and 
terrible. He has seen an altar filled night after night 
with sorrow-stricken sinners who remained without 
God and without hope, because the church did not 
have strength to travail for their birth. With the 
spirit of travail the church must be sux3plied if it 
would have sons and daughters born unto God. This 
spirit of travail cannot be counterfeited, nor is there 
.anything else that will do in its stead. The hocus- 
pocus of adroit generalship and novel machinery and 
striking propositions may manufacture scenes, but 
w^e are entirely dependent upon the Holy Ghost for 
a work of grace, and he will be party to no profes- 
sional performances, nor will he be deceived by half- 
hearted endeavors. 

When the leaders in the revival see that awakened 
and convicted sinners are not brought to Christ, let 
them make inquisition at the house of God; let there 
be patient, faithful, unsparing probing of consciences; 
let there be exhortations to self-examination, to days 
of fasting and prayer, to entire separation from the 
world, and to a constant seeking of the mind that 
was in Christ Jesus. Then plead the promise: "If 
my people, which are called by my name, shall hum- 
ble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn 



SOLICITUDE FOn ZION. 39 

from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, 
and will forgiv^e their sin, and will heal their land." 
(2 Chron. vii. 14.) Then predict as David did when 
he had confessed his sin and ofiered the sacrifice of 
a broken and contrite heart, and pledged himself 
again to the service of God: "Sinners shall be con- 
verted unto thee." (Ps. li. 13.) 

In the chapter on "The Protracted Meeting" of 
his stimulating book, "The Preacher Himself," Eev. 
J. J. Tigert, D.D., LL.D., who had seen "penitents 
crowd the chancel and not a Christian stir to offer 
the word of counsel and encouragement," cries: "Oh, 
for churches of power and life that shall never be 
surprised or disconcerted or unprepared when the 
slain of the Lord shall lie thick in their midst! Oh, 
for men and women who, with feet shod with the 
preparation of the gospel of peace, shall hurry to the 
thickest of the fight to pour the oil of healing and 
the wine of consolation into wounded and crushed 
spirits! AiKl let the redeemed of the Lord say so!^^ 

The church must be revived to take care of new con- 
verts. " When a child is born into the world and the 
mother's life is yielded up, men say it were better 
had the child never been born. Before it is life be- 
reft of a love and care and devotion which all else 
cannot supply. How about a child born into grace 
and finding for its mother a dead church? " Doubt- 
less this is one of the reasons why the Lord with- 
holds children from some churches. He knows the 
churches are not fit to mother newborn souls. There 
is a companion song to "After the Ball" that silly 
boys and girls, and sometimes older ones, have sung 
ad nauseam. The companion song is of a society 



40 BEVIVALS OE EELIGION. 

woman who renounces the instincts of motherhood, 
leaves a sick baby, and goes to a ball. The baby is 
pale and still and cold when she returns home after 
the ball. The song is as true to church life as to 
any other. Churches that make friendship with the 
world, and run after its fashions and pleasures, will 
lose their young. Sam Jones said at Boston: " God 
thinks too much of a sinner to convert him and put 
him in many of your churches just to starve to 
death." They have starved to death in churches, 
and have been frozen to death and have died of gen- 
eral neglect. 

The first time Sam Jones was at Nashville, Tenn., 
there was a good deal of complaint that he preached 
too much and too long to the church. A good brother 
called on the evangelist, stated the complaint, admon- 
ished him, and insisted that he ''begin at the next 
service on the unconverted." "Oh, no!" was the 
characteristic reply, ''it isn't time to begin on the 
unconverted yet. I know better than to kill my hogs 
before I've got the water hot." 

When one of our Southern Methodist bishops was 
preacher in charge of a circuit he had a church for 
which his heart became extraordinarily burdened. 
Its membership was altogether backslidden. He an- 
nounced a protracted meeting, and zealously affected 
himself to promote a revival of religion. The mem- 
bers were stubborn, resisted the preaching, and re- 
sisted the Holy Spirit. The preacher said: "There 
are sinners liere to be saved; they must not be lost 
because the church is dead;" and to the uncon- 
verted world he began to address his appeals. Forty 
professed religion and joined the church. " Now," 



SOLICITUDE FOB ZION. 



41 



thought the delighted pastor, "this new blood will 
give new strength and new hope to the old body." 
But it was not so. In six months the new members 
were like the old members, tuning ''formal songs," 
"fond of eartiily toys," cold at heart, and fit for 
notlnng. 

Parentage brings responsibility. Young converts 
must be trained up in the w^ay that they should go. 
The best way to train up a child in the way that he 
should go — a child born of our own loins or born of 
the Spirit — is to go that way ourselves. A prayer- 
ful, witnessing, God-glorifying church will see its 
newborn becoming prayerful, witnessing, and God- 
glorifying. The church must be revived, must be 
strengthened with might by the Spirit, must be 
rooted and grounded in love, must be instant in 
prayer, must be abundant in hope, must be going on 
unto perfection, if it would make of those laid upon 
its bosom "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a pe- 
culiar people." 

The church must hs revived to escape death. It is 
said that Cato ended all his speeches with the ring- 
ing words: " Eome must destroy Carthage, or Car- 
thage must destroy Rome." There was not room 
enough in the world for the two. The sovereignty 
of both was impossible. The church must conquer 
the world, or the world will conquer the church. 
We must reclaim the lost, or the lost will ruin us. 
"We must rescue the perishing, the outcast, the de- 
graded^ and the hopeless, or they will carry us with 
them down through the jaws of death into the belly 
of hell. 

Mrs. Catherine Booth says: "Modern Christians^ 



42 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

as a rule, do not see any need for the fight [the good 
fight of faith]. They hide themselves under some 
vain, false notions of the sovereignty of God. Oh, 
how often they have made my heart ache when I 
have been trying to arouse them to do something for 
the kingdom. They say: 'God is a sovereign, and 
he will accom|)lish his purposes out of all this sin 
and ruin;' and so they sit comfortably down and let 
things drift; and they have drifted to some purpose, 
have they not? In this so-called ChristiaD country, 
in this nineteenth century, they have drifted about 
as near perdition as they well could, without abso- 
lutely bringing hell on the earth. They have drifted 
socially as well as spiritually. Look at the state of 
the nation. Look at the godlessness, the injustice, 
the falseness, the blasphemy, the uncleanness, and 
the debauchery everywhere! Do you ever look at 
the condition of things close to your doors and your 
churches? the worse than heathen beastliness into 
which thousands of our neglected neighbors, rich 
and poor alike, have sunk? If only half the pro- 
fessing Christians of London had followed in their 
Master's steps for one twelvemonth, such things 
would have been impossible, utterly impossible! 

" I repeat, Jesus Christ has ordained and provided 
that his people are to set themselves to stem these 
torrents of moral and social pollution; they are to 
go and beard the lion in his den; to face the slaves 
of sin, open their eyes, and bring them to his feet, 
just as much as were his early followers; and never 
till we do it shall we realize a better state of things. 
. . . But I say, they do not see any need for it, and 
they try to quiet us who do. They do not feel these 



SOLICITUDE FOR ZION. 43 

things. As God said of the false and fallen proph- 
ets of the Jews : * They lay not these things to their 
hearts.' They walk about the w^alls and see the 
desolation of Zion without distress or apprehension, 
without tears or groans." 

We have only to read the second and third chapters 
of the Revelation of John to see that churches fallen 
from the truth and from the holiness as it is in Jesus 
are in danger of the judgments of Almighty God. 
Finney says: "How often have we seen churches, 
and even whole denominations, cursed with a curse, 
because they w-ould not wake up and seek the Lord, 
and pray: 'Wilt thou not revive us again that thy 
people may rejoice in thee?' A minister told me 
that he once labored as a missionary in Virginia, on 
the ground where such a man as Samuel Davies once 
flashed and shone like a flaming torch; and that Da- 
vies's church was so reduced as to have but one male 
member, and he, if I remember right, ^vas a colored 
man. The church had got proud and was all run 
out. I have heard of a church in Pennsylvania that 
w^as formerly flourishing, but neglected revivals, and 
it became so reduced that the pastor had to send to a 
neighboring church for a ruling elder when he ad- 
ministered the communion," 

This writer knows a Methodist church that once 
had a membership of five hundred. Its membership 
was rich and cultured. The little city in wdiich its 
lines w^ere cast was a marvel of loveliness and pros- 
perity. The love of the world crept in with the in- 
crease of goods and the church made alliance with 
fashion, wnth show, and with self-indulgence. The 
members of the church began to die, and their chil- 



44 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

dren, not taught the fear of the Lord, did not take 
their places in the church nor care for its welfare. 
In vain did preachers weep and testify, and exhort 
the people. They w^ould not be revived, they would 
not give up their ways, they would not turn to God; 
and the church declined and weakened, and at last 
had to go to the Home Missionary Board for sup- 
port. In just one of the New England States, Dr. 
Henry Fairbanks says there are not less than three 
hundred churches that have become extinct. 

A Chicago paper, describing a terrible flood in 
Dakota, which desolated fields and wrecked towns 
and cities, gave many striking instances of the ap- 
palling calamity, wdth the usual strange mixture of 
oddity and tragedy witnessed in that form of fatal 
event. One of the most pathetic was that of a church 
afloat. It had been lifted off its foundation stones, 
and being of strong timber and good workmanship, 
held together and came down the river in a dig- 
nified, majestic sort of w^ay, as though it had been 
built for just that career. It had a steeple, and in 
the steeple was a bell, and as the building rocked 
with the current and swung with the waves, the bell 
rang out in weird tones. Over the crash of ice and 
roar of the flood rang out the dirge of despair from 
the hoarse throat of the bell in the steeple of the 
church afloat. Which things are a parable. Down 
streams of worldliness and formalism and carnal 
security and spiritual adultery, swept by tides of 
selfishness, folly, and vanity, more than one church 
is afloat. They are off the only foundation that is 
laid. They exhibit a great deal of splendor and 
present imposing appearances. There may be no 



SOLICITUDE FOR ZION. 45 

indication of going to pieces. They swing the waves 
and are at home out in tlie world. They are pro- 
gressive churches; keep up with things, advance with 
the times, move witli the current, and all that; but 
there is a sentinel above, grimly protesting that all 
is not well, and clamorously foretelling a doom that 
is just at hand. 

In revivals of religion the church must be awak- 
ened before the world is aw-akened; the church must 
be alarmed before the world is alarmed; the church 
must be bestirred before the world is bestirred. 
Bishop Pierce wrote: "The church needs a revival 
for the salvation of her own unregenerate members. 
This is true of %ll the churches. We all have some 
hard cases, unconverted and unreformed; baptized 
sinners they are. Men of business overcharged with 
the cares of this life, making haste to be rich; society 
women, devotees to etiquette and fashion, who w^ould 
rather grieve the Spirit than to provoke unfriendly 
criticism; young people, gay and giddy, who have 
never actually renounced the pomp and vanities of 
the world. O beloved, there is a great work to be 
done 271 the church! Judgment must begin at the 
house of God." 

The Independent, New York, gave utterance to the 
following impressive words: "It is our profound con- 
viction that the great revival needed is in the church 
itself; bringing it back to an humble and lowly place 
with God. The wealth and luxury of modern times, 
the rush and drive of modern enterprise, the eager 
haste to get rich, the superfluity of ways and means 
for the gratification of the natural life, all tend to 
draw^ aw^ay God's people from a true spiritual ideal 



46 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

and experience. The affections are more set on 
things below than on thiugs above. The result is 
that a large measure of spiritual power is lost; we 
are sure that there is not that increase in the number 
of the saved that there ought to be in proportion to 
the means employed. Neither is there that high type 
of spiritual life that the Scripture sets forth as being 
the distinguishing mark of the Christian life. The 
energies used in the work of the Lord have a sus- 
picious look of the merely human more than the 
subtle power of the spiritual. There is an absence 
of profound conviction for sin in inquirers; there is 
an absence of deep and thorough consecration to 
God and his service among the converts. There is 
not that whole-hearted devotion to the Tacher's 
business' on the part of the church at large which 
ought to characterize our work. It is not apparent 
that to do the Father's will is the 'meat and drink' 
of the disciples as it was that of the Lord. On the 
other hand, sin and unbelief are rampant all about 
us. 'The faith ouce delivered to the saints' is in 
many quarters openly questioned, or denied even by 
those set to defend it. The forces of infidelity, ar- 
ranged in many ranks and classes, are pushing their 
attack against the right, left, and center of the Chris- 
tian lines. Now and again we see a breach made, 
and notice a painful tendency to waver and give 
ground to the enemy in places where w^e had hoped 
the army of faith was the strongest. This would not 
be, could not be, if God w^ere in the midst of his peo- 
ple in power and might." 

We may now be ready to appreciate Moody's re- 
cent utterance that he almost thought it w^as time to 



SOLICITUDE FOE ZION. 47 

quit preacliiiig to non-proJessors, on account o£ the 
urgent need of those already in the church. At the 
close of his life, Finney said: '' Oh, if I had strength 
of body to go through the churches again, instead 
of preaching to convert sinners, I would preach to 
bring up the churches to the gospel standard of holy 
living." Caughey left it on record: "God has im- 
pressed deeply upon my mind the necessity of deal- 
ing faithfully and plainly vfith professors of reli- 
gion. Thus have originated those discriminating and 
pointed appeals to the consciences of those who have 
been intrenched for years within the ramparts of 
my own and other denominations; and results of 
the most startling and impressive character have oc- 
curred." And so testifies an honored servant of 
Christ in England, who, referring to a mission re- 
cently held, said: "This mission, and missions gen- 
erally, confirm me in an opinion I have long held, 
and to which I have given frequent expression, that 
the supreme want of this age is a new baptism of 
the Holy Ghost upon the church; making the church 
a better church, holier, more Christlike, a faithful 
witness to the truth, and a glorious missionary and 
soul-saving agency. The mission of missions ivould 
he a mission to the chiii'ch. Out of that what missions 
to the world would come! And what an impression 
a purged, living, zealous, transformed, God-filled 
church would make upon the world! The doctors 
and reformers are many, and the prescriptions and 
methods are numerous and varied, and there is a 
good deal of discussing and conferring. The wise 
and the learned speak through the press and in other 
waySc But what the church really wants is God; 



48 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

the fullness of spiritual life, the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. There will be little success, the paces of 
progress will be slow, until the church gets on her 
knees, acknowledging her sins and shortcomings and 
unfaithfulness, and pleading with God to make her 
holy and to fill her with himself." And in the book 
of the prophecies of Ezekiel, xxxvi. 23, we read: 
" The heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith 
the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before 
their eyes.'' 



CHAPTER III. 

IN THE CHURCH. 

IT is observed that in all genuine revivals of reli- 
gion backsliders are the first reached. This writer 
has never known it otherwise. It is peculiarly fitting 
and desirable that at the first of the meeting those 
wdio have lost the joy of salvation should have it 
restored unto them. With every such renewal, re- 
proach is removed from the church and the revival 
secures another worker. 

The church ought not and must not consent to the 
loss of one who ever had blessedness and peaceful 
hours with God. 

It is useless to ask: "Do you believe in backslid- 
ing? " To that question but one answer is possible. 
That a stalwart negative. Nobody believes in back- 
sliding. All believe in holding on to the end. All 
believe in being faithful unto death. But with ref- 
erence to this doctrine, it is as it is with some others: 
many fall short of what they believe, go out from us, 
forget their first love, cast away their faith and con- 
fidence, die in darkness and through all eternity walk 
the dungeons of damnation. All believe in the per- 
severance of the saints. In spite of the wrath of the 
world and the assaults of the flesh and the rage of 
devils, the saints of Christ persevere. That is their 
chief end and one business as saints. It is this per- 
severance that proves them saints. It takes and 
makes a saint to persevere. But what is that to a 

(49) 



50 EEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

man who lives in sin? who neglects duty? whose 
faith is paralyzed? whose hope is gone? whose love 
is perished? whose zeal is dead? With all our soul 
we protest that there is no such doctrine in the Bible 
as the perseverance of delinquents or the persever- 
ance of backsliders. If men may live as they please, 
ignoring the demands of the gospel, and the claims 
of the church, walking in paths of disobedience and 
fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, and yet be saved on 
account of something they knew or felt or had or 
experienced in the past, there are appeals in the 
Bible destitute of significance and force, parables 
given by the Teacher Divine utterly bereft of mean- 
ing, and warnings to which no sensible exegesis is 
possible. This is the language of the Lord: " Every 
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away." 
(John XV. 2.) And this is the language of the Holy 
Ghost speaking at 2 Peter ii. 20: ''If after they have 
escaped the pollutions of the world through the 
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the 
latter end is worse with them than the beginning." 

There are not many ministers without memories 
which illustrate and vindicate these impressive words. 
Honest John Bunyan observed: "They fall deepest 
into hell who fall backward into hell." Another de- 
clares: ''I can certainly testify, after sixteen years' 
ministry, that by far the most hopeless deathbeds 
I have attended have been those of backsliders." 
Thus are fulfilled the words of two prophets: Jeremi- 
ah, ii. 19, v/hen he said, " Thine own wickedness shall 
correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: 
know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and 



IN THE CHURCH. 51 

bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, 
and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God 
of hosts; " andEzekiel, xviii. 24, 26, " When the right- 
eous turneth away from his righteousness, and com- 
mitteth iniquity, and doeth according to all the 
abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he 
live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall 
not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath tres- 
passed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them 
shall he die. When a righteous man turneth away 
from his righteouemess, and committeth iniquity, and 
dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done 
shall he die." 

As the case of backsliders is so miserable and 
desperate, we are urged to effort in their behalf, we 
are solemnly charged with responsibility for their 
restoration. At Ezekiel iii. 20, 21, we read: ''When 
a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, 
and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block 
before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given 
him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his right- 
eousness which he hath done shall not be remem- 
bered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 
Nevertheless, if thou waru the righteous man, that 
the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall 
surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast de- 
livered thy soul." And there is that affecting direc- 
tion at Galatians vi. 1: "Brethren, if a man be over- 
taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such 
a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, 
lest thou also be tempted." The church must liever 
lose faith or weary in effort for the salvation of any- 
one, no matter how often they fall nor how deep they 



52 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

fall. The church must rebuke presumption, so that 
no man who continues in sin or indulges evil tempers 
or renounces the use of the means of grace, shall 
think himself all right. The church must reprove 
despair, so that no man can, even for a moment, think 
that the mercy of God is *' clean gone forever," that 
he is "no more to be entreated," or that his promise 
is ''come utterly to an end for evermore." There is 
healing for every backslider who will return, and 
there is love. No criticism, no wounding of feelings, 
no taking of revenge, but healing and love for the 
backslider who will return unto the Father's house. 

Of this abundant healing and love, the church 
must be both the messenger and the minister. It 
must not stand at a distance from erring professors 
and reprobate them. More than ever before let them 
see how the church loves them, and has for them 
helping hands and supporting arms. Says Paul to 
the church at Corinth, of a backslider who had been 
excommunicated: "Ye ought rather to forgive him, 
and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be 
swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I 
beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward 
him." (2 Cor. ii. 7, 8.) God is merciful and gra- 
cious to backsliders. He never tires of multiplying 
pardons. Jesus Christ is the backslider's Friend and 
Saviour. The Holy Ghost is the backslider's Com- 
forter and Helper. In the church of God there is 
place and welcome and abundance for backsliders. 

The work of restoring backsliders is one of the 
most' delicate character. It is very much to be feared 
that it is sometimes taken up and disposed of in a 
manner altogether too careless. There is danger of 



IN THE CHURCH. 53 

assuming that because the soul has once known and 
enjoyed the blessings of the kingdom, instruction 
does not have to be so particular, that the conscience 
needs just a touch or a shove instead of deep-going, 
pain-giving probing, and that gentle hints and sug- 
gestions are enough. Backsliders, too, are inclined 
to think that there is some easier way for them than 
that of repentance, confession, and self-renunciation. 
They must be undeceived or lose their souls. The 
writer w^as assisting a member of the North Georgia 
Conference in a protracted meeting. Among the 
members of the church were some professors of con- 
version and some of entire sanctification who had 
fallen into open sin, waned in the love of God, and 
wearied in his service. When the meeting started, 
they came back to their old places and began to 
bluster about, as though nothing had hapjjenecL They 
thought all they had to do was to attend the meeting 
regularly, sit in their old places, sing vigorously, and 
go on their way rejoicing. One of them was a brother 
thrown down from the experience of perfect love. 
That he once had the blessing no one in all that 
country doubted; but he lost it; everybody saw^ that, 
and bemoaned it. He took to horseracing, got into 
political squabbles, and was not on speaking terms 
with a brother-in-law. But he persisted in claiming 
the power of which he was manifestly shorn, and 
boasting the grace which had obviously departed 
from him. There were others like him who did not 
know the difference between working oneself into a 
frenzy and straightening up matters with God and 
men. The backslider has everything to encourage 
him. His case is in no sense hopeless. God is wait- 



54 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

ing and watching for him to return. But step by 
step, he must come back, undoing all he did that 
grieved the Holy Spirit and drove him from the 
heart, resuming duties neglected, wooing virtues dis- 
owned, and counting with self -abhorrence the miles 
he wandered away from God To be healed, the 
balm must be applied and take effect. He must not' 
boast of health until he has given himself without 
reservation or dictation to the care and the skill of 
the Great Physician. A slight healing of the hurt 
will not do. There must be a thorough washing 
from all iniquity and cleansing from all sin, the 
creation of a clean heart, the renewal of a right 
spirit, the vouchsafement of the assurances of sal- 
vation, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then — 

Purer light will mark the road 
That leads him to the Lamb. 

There is another class found interested in the re- 
vival of religion very early in its progress, a class to 
whom revivals of religion are seasons of profit in- 
estimable: the deceived. 

The Bible exhibits the melancholy coDsideration 
that many live and die deceived; that many are 
going down to perdition who flatter themselves with 
hopes of heaven. This is advertised in many of the 
parables of the Lord. The five foolish virgins 
thought they would go on to the feast when the 
bridegroom came. The slothful servant, who hid 
his lord's money, had what he considered a complete 
vindication of his conduct. The man who had not 
on a wedding garment did not anticipate what hap- 
pened wdien the king came in. Indeed, the entire 
company of those who will be banished from the 



IN THE CHURCH. 55 

presence of God and hurled down to the place pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels, it is foretold, will 
contend with the Judge, at the bar of final reckon- 
ing, that they had been doers of his word and work, 
though he, with withering scorn, replies: *' Depart 
from me; I never knew you! " 

No office of the ministry is more important than 
that of holding up the gospel mirror before every 
hearer, so that it shall be impossible for anyone to 
remain undisturbed in the delusive dream of ever- 
lasting life, while his feet are treading the fearful 
way to eternal death. Assuredly it will not be the 
fault of the Bible that any soul expecting to be saved 
is eventually lost. - The necessity of regeneration, 
the mode, the means, the power, the evidences of it; 
the necessity of obedience and watchfulness; the 
consequences of disobedience, and a want of dili- 
gence and circumspection and self-denial — all these 
things are set forth in the Scriptures with a particu- 
larity, a frequency and emphasis so great that noth- 
ing less than absolute fatuity can account for the 
failure of anyone to yield to the c. nviction that the 
religion of Jesus Christ is infinitely more than a 
compound of emotions, zeal for a sect, or outward 
propriety. 

It is astonishing to what things sinners w^ill resort 
and in which they will trust for salvation. A brother 
minister told this w^riter of a young lady who bought 
a "dream book," and went to studying it, when the 
Holy Ghost convicted her of sin. Recently a poor 
soul for whom he was anxious, said: "I have decided 
that freemasonry is good enough religion for any- 
body." Another said to him: "My mother taught 



56 EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

me the catechism so long ago I don't remember when 
it was; and I know there's nothing better than the 
catechism." Another said: "I have resolved to take 
the law and live my life according to it." Scores of 
unconverted people have said to him : " I think I can 
trust myself to the mercy of God; he is too good to 
leave me out of heaven." The writer's wife was 
talking to a young lady on the necessity of being 
converted. The young lady said: "I've been con- 
verted;" and when requested to tell about it, an- 
swered: "I was off at boarding school, and there 
came along a protracted meeting, and we all went to 
it a good many times, and one night the preacher 
said for all who wanted to join the church to give 
him their hands and names, and I gave him mine." 
A married woman said to the author's wife: "My 
mamma never was converted or had religion, and I 
know she went to heaven when she died, and I be- 
lieve I can go there without being converted or hav- 
ing religion." And so they go with their ordinances, 
and church membership, and catechisms, and dream 
books, and freemasonry, and absurd sentimentab'sm, 
and self-righteousness, crying, "Peace! peace!" and 
expecting heaven, though God cries, "No peace!" 
and testifies of outer darkness. 

In a very able article which appeared in the Chris- 
tian Advocate, Nashville, Tenn., Eev. W. M. Leftwich, 
who, in his career as an evangelist, has taken pains to 
observe accurately, says: " Many are in the church who 
have never been regenerated, and consequently know 
nothing of spiritual life in their own experience; and 
many of them are the most active and useful mem- 
bers of the church. They are in the stewardship, the 



IN THE CHURCH. 57 

Woman's Missionary Society, the Epwortli League, 
the Sunday school, and in every other place of use- 
fulness in the church. They come into the church, 
take the vows, go into some organized form of church 
service, and begin the church life with a sincere de- 
sire to become Christians. They think that in some 
way their good works will save them. They have 
the impression that they are working out their sal- 
vation, when they are only working at their salvation. 
They put good works where the gospel puts saving 
faith, and make works the ground of faith instead of 
the evidence of faith. They are trying to save them- 
selves without Christ, and in doing so distinctly re- 
ject Christ. ' Not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved 
us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renew^ing 
of the Holy Ghost,' is a truth which they are slow 
to learn. And when the Holy Spirit convinces them 
that 'by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be 
justified in his sight,' and they begin to seek Christ, 
as other sinners seek him, then the words of St. Paul 
which they have been reading all their lives, take on 
a new meaning: 'For by grace are ye saved through 
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of 
God; not of works lest any man should boast.' It is 
surprising how many of this class a genuine script- 
ural revival will awaken and bring to a saving knowl- 
edge of the truth and a satisfactory trust in Christ." 
It is worth recording that the writer never engaged 
in a revival of religion in which there were not some 
members of the church brought to see that they had 
no vital interest in the things of the kingdom of 
heaven, and that they w^ere without God and witliout 



68 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

hope in the world. He remembers now one who had 
a name to live while yet she was dead; who rested in 
public profession, church loyalty^ and good behavior, 
but knew none of the deep designs of the law or the 
gospel. She was brought to herself. The revelation 
of herself to herself alarmed her. She cried to God 
and wept through five days. Then salvation came, a 
cloud-burst of joy, a tidal wave of glory. From that 
hour, her life was lived close beside 1 Thessalonians, 
V. 16, 17, 18. Trouble came, but she was hid in the 
secret place of the Most High, and was kept without 
sorrow and without fear. Affliction came, but under 
the shadow of the Almighty she could suffer and be 
strong. Death came, but clasped iu the arms of In- 
finite Love, she defied his power and escaped to the 
sky. Doubtless there are countless numbers like her 
already in the woild of glory, who praise and bless 
God there for the truth and grace received in reviv- 
als of religion, which freed tbem from their confi- 
dence all amiss and taught them the true faith and 
the true hope. 

Caughey has a page in sad contrast: "I have no 
doubt whatever," he says, "that multitndes join the 
various churches of this land, live and die in union 
with them, without having been born again; and 
what have they gained by it, but a deeper damna- 
tion? Such unhappy persons may be fitly compared 
to fche beasts which entered Noah's ark; neither their 
embarkment nor the terrors of the deluge — the mercy 
of the Lord displayed in their preservation while 
other brutes perished, nor the voice of prayer and 
praise by Noah and his family — wrought any radical 
change in those animals. They went in brutes, and 



IN THE CHURCH. 59 

they came out brutes; tliey entered the ark wild and 
unclean, and they departed ^Yild and unclean. Be it 
so; they were only brutes, and the God that made 
them never designed that they should be any thing- 
else. This is not the case with sinners in Zion; they 
may be converted, and become saints of the most high 
God; but a vast number enter the church of God 
and remain there unchanged in their nature, and 
leave for another world with an unchanged nature, 
and with as great a distaste for God and godliness as 
characterized their carnal mind through life. We 
have seen some of them stretched upon the bed of 
their last sickness, even those who have led a moral 
life; but now, unexpectedly called to die, they have 
realized the insufficiency of their past performances 
to bring tranquillity to their conscience, or to sustain 
effectually the confidence of their departing spirit, 
or to inspire them with courage to meet the deci- 
sions of the Supreme Judge. And there have been 
cases not a few in which the various acts of rebellion 
against conscience have terrified the soul; *Life has 
been all retouched again,' and with a finger of fire! 
If such have not sunk into the sullenness of despair, 
it has been quite as distressing to the minister of 
God to see them gather up their energies to die with 
something like manly fortitude, in the entire absence 
of any religious comfort." 

There are many texts which afford the preacher 
chance to expose whatever false hopes people may 
indulge. Here are some few^: '*He feedeth on ashes: 
a deceived heart hath turned him aside." (Isaiah 
xliv. 20.) '^The pride of thine heart hath deceived 
thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, 



60 REVIVALS OF BELIGION. 

whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, 
Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though 
thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy 
nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, 
saith the Lord." (Obadiah 3, 4.) "Let no man de- 
ceive himself." (1 Corinthians iii. 18.) "Examine 
yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your 
own selves." (2 Corinthians xiii. 5.) God will al- 
ways bless the earnest, conscientious, warm-hearted 
exposition of these texts. By such expositions, he 
will make the people see themselves as he sees them 
and know their relationship to things beyond. If 
they accept the truth, and zealously affect themselves 
according to the word, to them the kingdom of God 
w^ill come in all its power, there will be fellowship 
with Jesus, and heaven in which to go to heaven. 

However much it may chagrin and distress us, we 
are obliged to confess that in our churches are some 
who are awful hypocrites: people who profess to love 
God, whom they do not love; to love the church, 
which they do not love; to love the souls of men, 
when they do not; to enjoy religion, when they do 
not; to pursue holiness, when they are filled with 
their own ways. It is possible for these arch-de- 
ceivers to impose upon the very elect for long pe- 
riods. They are sure to be discovered at last. Masks 
and disguises are slippery things. Tliey drop off at 
unexpected moments. Long prayers and long groans 
and long faces, substituted for religion pure and un- 
defiled, have no long success. Still the devil accom- 
plishes the eternal ruin of many by persuading them 
to pretend to a grace of which they are absolutely 
destitute. Gain of some kind is the bait with which 



IN THE CHUliCH. 61 

he generally tempts. No one means to be the actor 
of a part to the end of life, but till they reach a cov- 
eted prize — financial, social, or of some other char- 
acter. A merchant who was going to move his busi- 
ness to another town asked a friend: "What is the 
largest church there*? I want to join a church that 
would help me out in my business." This waiter 
knew a preacher who, when brought down to face 
death, cried out: "Oh, pray for me; I'm lost, I'm 
lost!" Some one answered: "You lost? you who 
have preached for us so long?" He was over eighty 
years old. He said : " I have preached, but it was whol- 
ly for self. All my life I have sought my own ends." 
The prophets of the Old Testament were never 
more earnest than when they inveighed against hy- 
pocrisy — never more earnest, and never more dar- 
ing. With reckless carelessness of consequences, 
they charged it upon priests, and fellow-prophets, 
and chief captains, and kings, and armies, and na- 
tions. John the Baptist, with an intenser loathing 
of false professing and false pretending than any of 
the prophets of his nation, stirred up the conscience 
of all Judea with his audacious denunciations of its 
contemptible and miserable dissimulations, subter- 
fuges, prevarications. The invectives of our Lord 
were never so severe as when he made them car- 
ry the scorn and indignation he felt toward all that 
was counterfeit and put-on in religion. The apostles 
treated hypocrisy with unsparing reprobation. So 
must and so does every minister who aspires to the 
best possible service in his calling. The sermons of 
John W^esley, Charles G. Finney, Sam P. Jones, and 
Mrs. Catherine Booth illustrate. 



62 EEVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

During a revival of religion, v^hen the truth as it 
is in Jesus is glorified in its successful assaults upon 
worldly and sensual influences, is the best time to 
bring to pungent conviction those whose lives are 
living lies. Revivalists and revival workers must 
aim at this result and seek it in every possible way. 
Unto this very end it is true that "the word of God 
is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any tw^o- 
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and 
is a discernei^ of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. Neither is there any creature that is not 
manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and 
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to 
do." (Hebrews iv. 12, 13.) 

A revival was in progress at a town in the State of 
Florida. God was in the midst of the people, and 
many were wounded and slain of him. One night, a 
leader in church affairs, a man prominent in religious 
work, made his way to the altar, weeping aloud. He 
knelt there, the subject of strong emotions, and be- 
gan to call mightily for mercy and salvation. The 
entire congregation was amazed, and began to in- 
quire: "What does it mean? Is he mad? Has over- 
righteousness crazed him?" Especially bewildered 
were his wife and children. By and by, he got up 
and stated that for the first time he knew experi- 
mentally the joy of being saved. Then he added 
the account of a life of duplicity and dishonesty he 
had been leading up to that hour. He said he had 
Jeft home in the West under a false name to escape 
arrest for stealing five hundred dollars. Years had 
elapsed, he had married, children were born, he was 



IN THE CHURCH. 63 

getting rich, ''but," he said, ''the man I robbed is 
still living, and I mean to start back there to-night, 
and I will pay him his money, and on top of it all 
the interest he wants; and if, after this, 1 have to go 
to jail, I'll go, and suffer out my penalt}^" Instances 
of this character are not rare. Conquered by the 
truth that comes with revival power, they have left 
off secret sins, have repaired evil, have atoned for 
offenses, and have become new men and true men in 
Christ JesuB. Faithful revival work has given women 
more loyal husbands, children more conscientious par- 
ents, merchants more trustworthy clerks, customers 
at stores better goods and better measures, commu- 
nities more honorable citizens, and churches more 
sincerely devoted members. 

Another work to be done in the church is that of 
helping fliose ivlio are tmah in the faith, the liikewann, 
the careless, and the idle. The devil is willing enough 
for professors without number to be multiplied, as 
long as they are the sort who are afraid of being 
" overzealous " and "overrighteous," the sort that 
had rather compromise than contend, the sort that 
say, "This doesn't matter," and "There is no harm 
in that," and, "The other point is yielded;" but he 
starts and trembles, and rages with all his might, 
when they are the sort that are ready unto exerj 
good work, fervent in spirit, strong in faith, rejoic- 
ing in hope, abundant in love, instant in prayer, 
aspiring and crying: 

Thou, Christ, art all I want; 
More than all in thee I iind ! 

In some circles it is the fashion to ridicule the 
efforts made in revivals to have members of the 



64 EEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

church seek "more religion," "a deeper work of 
grace," "a fuller measure of love," to be "drawn 
nearer God," but there are those whose spiritual 
decline will never be arrested in any other way. 
And is it not an apostolic exhortation, " Covet ear- 
nestly the best gifts?" 

That versatile and accomplished gentleman, Hon. 
C. B. Collins, of Florida, in a newspaper article, 
discussing political parties, said: "The Republican 
party was invincible, as long as it was ultra.'' Every 
Christian is invincible as long as he is ultra! He 
courts danger and defeat if he be content with any- 
thing besides "the best gifts." It minimizes the 
danger of backsliding to be an ultra Christian. The 
little boy who fell out of bed explained the circum- 
stance philosophically, when he said: "I reckon I 
was sleeping too close to the getting-in place." That 
is the explanation of many a backsliding and many 
an utter fall: resting "too close to the getting-in 
place." The "getting-in place" is a dangerous stop- 
ping place. 

Besides that, God wants to have his people where 
he can command all they have — every dollar, every 
drop of blood, every bit of their strength, and all of 
their time. 

And it is better farther on, for the path of the just 
shines brighter and brighter, and farther on are the 
Delectable Mountains, and hills of beatific vision, 
and Beulah Land that flows with milk and wine. 
We must not let the devil cheat anyone out of these 
supernal possibilities; but warning them that are 
unruly, and comforting the feeble-minded, and sup- 
porting the weak, and being patient unto all men 



IN THE CHURCH. 65 

(1 Thessalonians v. 14), bring the outer court wor- 
shipers into the holiest of alL 

When Rev. F. E. Shipp was pastor at Bartow, 
Fla., the writer assisted him in a protracted meeting. 
One night a little boy, who had professed religion 
the night before, came to the altar and knelt. It was 
seen that he w^as very much moved, and the pastor 
knelt by him, and the following conversation ensued: 
"Luther, I am surprised to see you here; I thought 
you were converted last night." ''Ob, I was," the 
boy sobbed. "Sure enough converted?" "Yes; I 
know I was," " Got religion, Luther? " " Of course, 
I got religion last night." " Then tell me what has 
gone wrong, and why you are back here in so much 
trouble." "Oh," he said with thrilling earnestness, 
and his head bowed lower still, "nothing has gone 
wrong; I have had religion all day, but / ivant some 
more reJigion.'' Vfould that all in our churches were 
like-minded! There is but one thing better than re- 
ligion, and that is more religion. Blessed be God, 

there is 

More and more, raore and more, 

iVlways more to follow; 
Oh, his matchless boundless love; 
Still there's more to follow. 

"Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, 
that it may bring forth more frnit. Herein is my 
Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye 
be my disciples." (John xv. 2, 8.) 

The ivitness of the Spirit is one of the possibilities 

of grace that revivals of religion ought to develop in 

the hearts of all who have forsaken sin and turned 

unto God. Through the rich mercy of God, we are 

5 



66 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

not only given to know that there is pardon for all 
who repent and believe, but as well are given to know 
when we have been -pardoned. It is a direct, imme- 
diate, unmistakable assurance of acceptance by the 
grace of God that is in Jesus Christ. It is not the 
conclusion to which we may come by comparing our 
experience with the " scriptural marks of regenera- 
tion," much less by comparing ourselves with char- 
acters in or out of the Bible. Nor is it the satisfac- 
tion of mind gotten by reasoning, " I have repented, 
I have believed, I have been baptized; therefore I am 
saved;" nor, "1 have been confirmed and am a mem- 
ber of the church; therefore all is well with me;" 
nor, "I am resolved to live right; therefore I am 
all right." It is the testimony of God himself in 
regard to what he has done. "The Spirit himself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children 
of God." (Eomans viii. 16, E. V.) 

This testimony is not always circumstautial, but is 
generally so; embracing time and place. 

It were idle to deny that there are professors of 
religion who know nothing of this promised witness. 
They are in utter confusion as to their standing with 
God. They sing, 

Do I love the Lord, or no? 
Am I his? or am I not? 

without ever a thought or hope or prayer to have the 
all-important question definitely answered. 

Those who are engaged in promoting a revival of 
religion cannot ignore or overlook or forget these 
unhappy ones. The meeting must be ordered with 
reference to them, and everything done that can be 
done to emancipate them from their bondage to un- 



IN THE CHURCH. 67 

certainty and fear. To this end sermons and expe- 
rience meetings and class meetings and personal in- 
terviews are profitable. 

It will be found that the absence of the witness of 
the Spirit is due to one of the following causes: A 
physical discouragement, a mental embarrassment, 
or a moral or spiritual delinquency. 

Let it once for all be understood that the peace 
and joy which come with the witness of the Spirit 
are not the products of special temperamental apti- 
tudes. It was no more David's constitutional pecul- 
iarity to be full of rapture and praise than it was 
Goliath's or Saul's. Brilliant and holy emotions are 
not natural to any human soul. This is the triumph 
of grace, the victory of saving truth. On the other 
hand, no one engages very long in revival labors 
without meeting some truly religious people who go 
mourning on account of physical imperfections and 
derangements. Distresses that are wholly of the 
body they recognize as of the soul, and give them- 
selves no end of trouble. They seek and pray and 
weep and accept propositions, and go on mourning 
just the same. There are instances of this agony as- 
suming the intensity and proportions of mania. 

Rev. Thomas Rogers was a very spiritual and in- 
fluential minister who lived at London, about the close 
of the seventeenth centnry. He " fell into a state of 
deep melancholy ; and such w^as the distressing dark- 
ness of his mind that he gave up all hope of the mercy 
of God and believed himself to be a vessel of wrath, 
designed for destruction, for the praise of the glori- 
ous justice of the Almighty. His sad condition was 
known to many pious ministers and people through- 



68 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

out the country, who, it is believed, were earnest and 
incessant in their suijplications in his behalf. And 
these intercessions were not ineffectual; for it pleased 
God to grant a complete deliverance to his suffering 
servant. And having received comfort of the Lord, 
he was exceedingly desirous to be instrumental in 
administering the same comfort to others, with which 
he himself had been comforted. He therefore wrote 
several treatises with this object in view, which are 
well calculated to be of ser\^ice to those laboring 
under spiritual distress." Nor is that all; but of 
service, as well, to ministers and revival workers who 
would be helpful to these melancholy souls. The 
following are the names of some of the treatises he 
wrote: "A Discourse on Trouble of Mind, and the 
Disease of Melancholy;" " Recovery from Sickness;" 
and ''Consolations to the Afflicted." In the preface 
of the first mentioned there is a series of directions 
as to the best manner of relieving despondent souls. 
Very greatly abridged, it is as follows: "1. Look 
upon your distressed friends as under one of the 
worst distempers to which this miserable life is ob- 
noxious. 2. Treat them with tender compassion. 
3. Never use harsh language. 4. Be careful not to 
express any want of confidence in what they relate 
of their feelings and distresses. Do not attempt to 
dispose of what they say with such replies as, 'That 
is all imaginary.' The disease is real and the misery 
is real. 5. Do not urge them to impossibilities. 6. 
Do not attribute the effects of mere disease to the 
devil. 7. Do not express much surprise or wonder 
at anything they say or do. 8. Do not tell them 
frightful stories. 9. Do not think it needless to talk 



IN THE CHUECH. 69 

with them. 10. It will be useful to tell them of 
others who have been in the same state of suffering 
and yet have been delivered. 11. Pray for them. 

12. Engage other Christian friends to pray for them. 

13. Put them in mind continually of the grace of 
God in Jesus Christ." These directions, studied in 
the light which the Bible supplies, will contribute to 
a thorough preparation for dealing with these chil- 
dren of despair, and leading them in triumph over 
doubt and dejection into the joy that is exceeding- 
great and full of glory. 

Theological misconceptions, and ignorance of the 
wdll of God in Christ Jesus concerning us, keep 
many in dismay of soul. They have been taught to 
believe that no one can know with any degree of 
certainty whether they have been converted. Finney 
tells us: "For hundreds of years it has been looked 
upon by many as a suspicious circumstance if a 
professor of religion is not filled with doubts. It is 
considered almost a certain sign that he knows noth- 
ing of his own heart. One of the universal questions 
put to candidates has been: ^Have you any doubts 
of your good estate?' And if the candidate answers, 
'Oh, yes, I have great doubts,' that is all very well, 
and is taken as evidence that he is spiritual, and has 
a deep acquaintance wdth his own heart, and has a 
great deal of humility. Bat if he has no doubts, it 
is taken as evidence that he knows little of his own 
heart, and is most probably a hypocrite." 

There was related to the writer an account of a 
man in the State of Kentucky wdio got religion in a 
Methodist meeting but agreed to unite with another 
church on account of his family. The account was 



70 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

given by one who saw and heard it all, and in the 
presence of others who verified it. It was a conver- 
sion of the kind that Methodists call "sky blue." 
The man was gloriously saved. He was very happy 
and shouted a good deal. The day came when he 
was to be received into church membership. He 
was invited to the front pew, and the preacher began 
to examine him with reference to religious experi- 
ence. Very soon the candidate was ahead of the 
examiner, and with loosened tongue and exultant 
soul was publishing the amazing mercy he had re- 
ceived of God. The church was startled, shocked, 
offended, and concluded the matter by voting to re- 
ject the application for membership. It was a coun- 
try church, and had service just once a month. The 
next preaching day came, and the noisy convert was 
again on hand, asking to join the church. At the 
earnest request of his wife and others near and dear 
to him, he resolved that he would keep quiet and 
answer the preacher's questions in short meter and 
subdued monotone. But memory and gratitude were 
too much for him. He was soon mounting 

Higher 
In a chariot of fire 

than David went in the one hundred and third Psalm. 
The church again voted to reject. Thus it continued 
almost a year, till worn out by his importunity and 
irrepressibility, the congregation decided to let him 
in, but with the positive understanding that he 
"should keep as quiet as possible." Quiet was not 
possible at all. "Oh, my!" the members groaned; 
"that is all of the flesh; he is too knowing, and too 
noisy about it." 



IN THE CHUKCH. 71 

Another story is told of one who said, with entirely 
too much zeal: "I had religion and didn't know it, 
and lost it and never missed it." Whether he told 
the truth in part or in whole, wittingly or unwittingly, 
no one would ever think of identifying the unknown 
"religion" he had with that experience which rav- 
ished the hearts of Paul and Silas in prison at Phi- 
lippi, till happier than all the kings of the universe 
they made midnight glorious with praise and song, 
and forgot that they were not in heaven. 

To relieve those who do not know what are the 
riches of their inheritance in Christ Jesus, we must 
show them the promises, show them in the Bible the 
recorded instances of their fulfillment, and show 
them that they have been fulfilled in all ages down 
to the present time. It must be insisted upon that 
the witness of the Spirit is not a distinction accorded 
the few, but a reality for all who are justified and 
regenerated. The nature of the witness must be 
carefully explained. Prayer must accompany our 
efforts to bring all into the assurance of salvation. 

In a moral or spiritual delinquency will be found 
the commonest cause for no witness of the Spirit 
and no joy in the Lord. Caughey speaks at one 
place'of a ''standing doiibV He found many, as all 
ministers do, who have a " standing doubt " as to their 
acceptance. He explains that a " standing doubt " is 
a " doubt that has something to stand on." 

Doubt has plenty of standing room in an unre- 
generated heart. Alas, how many there are in our 
churches who have never been converted, and who 
are yet in condemnation! There is no assurance for 
such, no witness of the Spirit, "no peace, saith my 



72 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

God." (Isaiah Ivii. 21.) It is well for them to be 
brought to see that their names have not been writ- 
ten down in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that they 
have no "titles to mansions in the skies." They 
must get religion, they must be born again, they 
must be converted. Then the witness will come. 

Doubt has plenty of standing room in the heart cf 
a backslider. "It is as impossible, in the nature of 
things, that a holy, Christian, hope or peace or joy, 
should be kept alive in clearness and strength, in 
circumstances of sin, as it is to keep the bright sun- 
shine in the air when the sun has gone down." At 
Isaiah vii. 9, the margin reads: " Do ye not believe? 
it is because ye are not stable." Sam Jones's chorus, 
"Quit your meanness," must be sung to these delin- 
quents. The writer was calling at the home of a 
lady who was a member of his church. She seemed 
to be in a good deal of distress. She said she "didn't 
know" what to make of herself, she "felt so dull 
and listless in religion," she said she had no joy of 
salvation, and so on, after that way. Once she was 
full of the Spirit, testified and prayed in public, and 
was rich in works of piety and charity. There was 
now no Bible in the house where company could see 
it, no religious literature; there was a pack of l^ards 
on the piano and another on the mantel (she had 
just given a very expensive whist party), the music 
rack was filled with songs and other pieces that cer- 
tainly did "not tend to the knowledge or love of 
God; " the walls were hung with pictures that may 
have been "high art," but were decidedly suggestive 
of low morals; she had not missed a play at the 
theater that season. On the other hand, she was 



IN THE CHUliCH. 73 

seldom at prayer meeting, came to church irregu- 
larly, was never at Sunday school, and "just hated" 
revivals of religion. No one, besides herself, won- 
dered that she had doubts. By and by her pastor 
said: "You clear your house of playing cards, quit 
this theater-going, in the sweetest way you can de- 
cline all the invitations you get to balls and select 
dances, and you come to Sunday school and prayer 
meeting and church, and you read your Bible daily 
and watch your conduct and pray without ceasing, 
and go out after the perishing in the name and the 
strength of the Lord; do this with a profound ab- 
horrence of the way you have been living, and with 
fixed trust in God, and if your doubts don't clear 
away and heaven come down into your heart, I will 
quit preaching." 

There is plenty of room for doubt in the heart of 
that professor of religion who makes no progress in 
grace. There is no place in the kingdom of God 
for a stand-still professor. "Add to your faith;" 
"Grow in grace;" "Go on unto perfection" — these 
are commandments. They cannot be ignored with- 
out grieving the Spirit. The angels on Jacob's lad- 
der were either going up or coming down. There 
was not one round on which they w^ere permitted 
to halt. Every day in the old creation brought a 
change upon the world, till God beheld his fin- 
ished work and said it was " very good." Every day 
ought to bring some new gift, some new grace, some 
new spiritual adorning, some new spiritual power 
to the man that is in Christ Jesus — God's new cre- 
ation. 

This is the right place to linger and refer to a 



74 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

habit some ministers have of seeking to persuade 
professors and churcli members and otliers that they 
are saved and have eternal life, while as yet they are 
destitute of the witness of the Spirit. They go to 
an altar at which sinners are bowing, or into an in- 
quiry room, or a seeker's meetiug, and say to some 
they find there: " What are you doing here? YouVd 
got religion." They have been known to advise 
broken-hearted penitents, "Go back to your seat; 
you're all right." 

Equally guilty are those revivalists who bend over 
a seeker, ask a few general, indefinite questions, and 
then clap their hands aud shout, "Glory to God, 
another soul saved! " Or they will count the hands 
held up for prayer, or the number of cards that have 
come in signed, or the names of applicants for church 
membership, and triumphantly proclaim: " Fifty have 
come out on the Lord's side to-night." This is a 
dangerous responsibility for a preacher or anyone 
else to assume. When God regenerates he witnesses 
to the work, and the witness of God does not need 
corroboration. If God has not witnessed, in vain 
and fatal are the assurances which men may have to 
propose. A Methodist preacher said in an experi- 
ence meeting: "If an angel should descend the sky 
and come to me and say, ' Tour sins are forgiven and 
you are adopted into the family of God,' I would 
answer him, 'Sir, I already know it.'" A church 
the membership of which has been vouchsafed this 
"blessed assurance," this "foretaste of glory divine," 
will excite all sorts and conditions of men either to 
confess with the overwhelming despair of devils or 
to acclaim with the choral rapture of angels: "Now 



IN THE CHURCH. 75 

is come salvation, and the tabernacle of God is with 
men!" 

Leaders in revivals of religion owe it to the people 
to exhibit the promises and unfold the doctrine of 
entire scmetification. If to ''spread scriptural holiness 
through these lands" be the peculiar and boasted 
mission of Methodism; if, as Wesley thought and as- 
serted just the year before he died, "this doctrine 
is the grand depositum which God has lodged with 
the people called Methodists, and for the sake of 
propagating this chiefly he appears to have raised us 
up," no preacher or worker in a Methodist church 
can afford to neglect a faithful and earnest presenta- 
tion and enforcement of this truth as it is in Jesus. 
If it be true that *' without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord," and that " this is the will of God, even 
your sanctification," and that "the end of the com- 
mandment is charity out of a pure heart," no min- 
ister of the gospel, whatever be his ecclesiastical re- 
lations, no gospeler can for a moment indulge the 
reflection that he has declared the whole of the coun- 
sel of God, that he has been true to his responsibili- 
ties and opportunities, if he has failed to exhort 
and lead the people "on to perfection." At Ephe- 
sians iv. 2, we are shown that it is " for the perfect- 
ing of the saints " that the Head of the church calls 
and commissions apostles and prophets and evangel- 
ists and pastors and teachers, "till we all come in the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ." 

Revivals of religion are occasions especially fa- 
vorable to the successful proclamation of the prom- 



76 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

ises of Christian perfection. This writer has known 
many who denied the attainability of entire sanc- 
tification in this life, and some who preached against 
it, to see, in ''times of refreshing from the pres- 
ence of the Lord," the doctrine all divine, and 
seek, with tears and groans, its realization in their 
lives. 

Everyone acquainted with the history of the Wes- 
ley an revival, out of which oar church was born, 
knows that holiness was a frequent theme upon the 
lips of those who took any goodly part in that spirit- 
ual revolution. Everyone acquainted with the his- 
tory of the organization and planting of Methodism 
on this Western continent knows that purity of heart, 
complete consecration, perfect love, were the watch- 
words of Asbury and his colaborers, in their direc- 
tion of the cause with which they were intrusted. 
Both in England and America, the foundation stones 
bore the inscription: "Holiness unto the Lord." 
And it is significant, and inspiring too, to know that 
wherever Methodist revivals have commanded suc- 
cess, scriptural holiness has been the burden of the 
preaching. Preaching? the preaching of holiness? 
Not only was holiness the burden of the exposition 
and argument and exhortation of their sermons, but 
it was as well the burden of their prayers as they 
presented unto God the petitions: "Create within 
me a clean heart;" '*Wash me, and I shall be whiter 
than snow." Nor in the class meetings did they set 
before those with whose spiritual interests they were 
charged any other aim than to be perfect even as 
God was perfect. Oh, how carefully pointed were the 
questions those old leaders sent into the consciences 



IN THE CHURCH. 77 

of the members of their classes! And when they 
sang, it was not always, 

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it ; 
but with soul-absorbing joy, 

Oh, glorious hope of perfect love! 
and, 

Forever here my rest shall be! 
There are some now who refrain from preaching 
and urging entire sanctification because there are 
differences of opinion on the subject and some con- 
troversy in progress. The revivalist is besought, 
as he values the success of the work of the Lord to 
avoid controversy. He is sent to preach and offer 
holiness, not to get into quarrels about it. This 
does not mean that unscriptural views are to be 
let alone. They must be disowned and the people 
warned of them. Because there has arisen dispute 
and disagreement concerning it is not a sufficient ex- 
cuse for withholding the proclamation of the will of 
God. Concerning what revealed truth have we not 
had disagreement and dispute? Are we all agreed as 
to the nature of repentance? Do all define conver- 
sion alike? Must we quit preaching conversion and 
repentance until there is no contention on those sub- 
jects? God commands his people to be perfect; he 
has provided for their perfection; he tells us of some 
who were perfect before him; he promises to make 
unutterably blessed those who prove his good and 
acceptable and perfect will; preachers are charged 
to order their labors with reference to the ^' perfect- 
ing of the saints." We cannot wait till all are of 
one mind and of one voice, but must take the truth 



78 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

as we are able to know it, preach it vigorously, live 
it blamelessly, and share its destiny. 

This writer is not arguing the philosophy of bless- 
ings. He knows notliing about that. He is insisting 
that the blood of Jesus Christ can wash and keep the 
foulest clean; that there is an experience in which 
there is no fear and no sin, and that these are pres- 
ent tense blessings, received by faith in the Son of 
God, and that it is the duty of pastors and revivalists 
to urge all whom they can reach to apprehend that 
for which they are apprehended. 

Nor must anyone be discouraged when the x^eople 
protest: ^'I don't believe in holiness;" or ''I don't 
understand it;" or '^I am prejudiced against it;" or 
"I don't like it." These remonstrances conclude 
nothing. A preacher of the gospel has no other 
business than to get people to believe things that they 
do not want to believe, and to do things that they do 
not want to do. 

Let us hear the fathers speak. 

John Wesley: " When Christian perfection is not 
strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom any 
remarkable blessing from God, and little life in the 
members. Speak, and spare not. Let not regard for 
any man induce you -to betray the truth of God. 
Till you impress the believers to expect full salva- 
tion now, you must not look for any revival." And: 
"Therefore let all our preachers make it a point to 
preach perfection to believers constantly, strongly, 
explicitly. I doubt not we are not explicit enough 
in speaking on full sanctification, in public or pri- 
vate. Preach Christian perfection, and you will 
always have revivals." 



IN THE CHUliCH. 79 

Adam Claeke: "If the Methodists give up preach- 
ing entire sanctification, they will soon lose their glo- 
ry. This fitness to appear before God, and thorough 
preparation for eternal glory, is what I plead for, 
pray for, and heartily recommend to all true be- 
lievers under the name of Christian perfection. Let 
all those who retain the ax30stolic doctrine that the 
blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin in this life, 
pray every believer to go on to perfection, and ex- 
pect to be saved, while here below, unto fullness of 
the blessing of the gospel of Christ." 

Feancis Asbuey: "Preach sanctification directly 
and indirectly in every sermon." " Oh, purity! Oh, 
Christian perfection! Oh, sanctification! It is heaven 
below to feel all sin removed. Preach it whether 
they will hear or forbear. Preach it." "I find that 
no preaching does good but that which properly 
presses the use of the means, and urges holiness of 
heart. These points I am determined to keep close 
to in all my sermons." 

Bishop McKendeee: "I trust you will ever keep 
in view, in all your ministrations, the great design 
which we believe God intended to accomplish in the 
world, in making us 'a people that Avere not a people ' 
— I mean the knowledge, not only of a free, and a 
present, but also a full salvation; in other words, a 
salvation from all sin unto all holiness. Insist 
much on this; build up the churches herein, and 
proclaim aloud, that without holiness no man shall 
see the Lord. Under the guidance of the Spirit of 
holiness, the doctrine will be acknowledged of God: 
signs will follow them that believe and press after 
this uttermost salvation, and our people will bear the 



80 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

mark of their high calling — become a holy nation, a 
peculiar people." 

Well urge the Bishops of our Church in their last 
(1894) Pastoral Address: "The privilege of believers 
to attain unto a state of entire sanctification or per- 
fect love, and to abide therein is a well-knov^n teach- 
ing of Methodism. Witnesses to this experience 
have never been w^anting in our Church, though few 
in comparison with the whole membership. Among 
them have been men and women of beautiful con- 
sistency and seraphic ardor, jewels of the Church. 
Let the doctrine still be proclaimed, and the ex- 
Xoerience still be testified." 

No worker in revivals or other fields of Christian 
service has anything like an adequate couception of 
the usefulness possible to him, if he only adjust his 
heart and ministry to this will of God in Jesus 
Christ. 

Certainly well-instructed scribes will not think of 
inviting backsliders and false professors to seek holi- 
ness. There is other zeal for them first. 

The objection is sometimes presented that the 
preaching of entire sanctification is a discourage- 
ment to the unsaved. Entire sanctification as it is 
sometimes preached(?) is a discouragement to every- 
one, saint and sinner. The preaching of the truth 
and promise of God can discourage none. There is 
no encouragement to an invalid when tlie doctor and 
nurse and friends together insist, '^ Tou are to take 
this medicine and follow our advice and try to get 
well, but never hope to." But when the doctor says, 
"This remedy never fails," and the nurse testifies, 
" I have seen it cure every one of my patients who 



IN THE CHURCH. 81 

tried it," and friends join in saying, '' ^\e were sick 
as you, and some of us worse, and it brought us back 
to perfect health " — then ho^^e wdll kindle fires in the 
long-dimmed eyes and awaken songs in the weary 
heart, and rouse the all but surrendered forces of the 
body to resolute resistance and splendors of aggres- 
sion. 

Preach Christian perfection, live it, testify to it, 
sing it; have the people to seek it definitely and never 
weary; until, like one now crowned and enthroned 
in the presence of the Father, they have written 
down on the margins of their Bibles opposite the 
promises of a pure heart, '' Answered in me!'' 

It doth not appear what God is able and willing to 
do with the weakest and most inconsistent professor 
of religion; but this we know, grace can overcome 
everything and make Christ all in all. Encouraged 
by that faith, enraptured by that hope, the Lord with 
ns always, we must persevere and never weary in 
our sympathy, in our help, in our testimony, in our 
counsel, in our prayer, in all the duties of our office, 
whatever that office be, till awakened to a knowledge 
of the riches of their inheritance and the greatness of 
the Divine Power to us-ward who believe, the frailest 
and the most fearful are abroad in ecstasies of con- 
secration, thrashing the mountains and scattering the 
hills as chaff. 
6 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Solicitude foe Sinnees. 

WHEN God, for Christ's sake, has answered 
the prayer, " Be merciful unto me a sinner," 
and peace and joy are diffused through the heart in 
which the pains of hell have been rioting, wath the 
exit of alarm and anxiety on one's own account there 
enters alarm and anxiety for others. This is in- 
variably the case. Solicitude for sinners is an es- 
sential indication of regeneration. The first impulse 
of one who has received the spirit of adoption, after 
giving praise for the grace, is to bring some one else 
into the enjoyment of the same relationship to God 
through Jesus Christ. Nor is this to be wondered 
at. The heart in which the love of God is shed 
abroad carries the life that gave Calvary to the 
world. It will be moved with compassion for the 
lost, it will weep over the erring, it will be grieved 
when men resist the Holy Ghost, and be stirred unto 
its depths at cities given wholly to idolatry. Nor is 
it simply because this open scorn and rebellion gives 
a shock to religious sensibility, but because it is seen 
most clearly that continuance in unbelief and dis- 
obedience will insure the remediless destruction of 
the delinquents. God is love. That which is born 
of love is love. Whom God loves his child will love; 
and as long as God loves, his child will love. To 
keep oneself in the love of God is to keep one- 
self in love with souls, burdened with sorrow on ac- 
(82) 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 83 

count of their lack and zealously affected unto their 
salvation. 

We cannot fail to observe, when we read the Bible, 
that it is the desire and design of God to make this 
sacred sympathy and solicitude available unto the 
conversion of the world. There is anticipation of 
ready and cheerful obedience when he commands: 
*' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature." (.Mark xvi. 15.) And there was 
manifested nothing more than the spirit of a son in 
the answer Bishop Taylor made when some friends 
besought him to give up his work in Africa. Diffi- 
culties and dangers were multiplying, disappoint- 
ments and failures had come, but, with the mind of 
the Elder Brother in him, he said: "I can't give up 
this mission, and I won't come back. I had rather 
spend the next ten years of my life over here in 
Africa, telling these poor negroes the story of Jesus 
and his love, than stand with a harp and a crown be- 
fore the King in glory." Bishop J. O. Andrew, with 
a heart brimming with this pure, unselfish love, said 
at one of the sessions of the Mississippi Conference: 
''For myself, I would rather know that some poor 
slave would cast a flower on my grave when I am 
gone, in grateful memory of my agency in leading 
him to Jesus, than to have any honor this poor world 
could bestow upon me." 

We are plainly taught that something else besides 
the salvation of a soul is contemplated when God 
comes in regenerating power. ''If the salvation of 
a soul had nothing else in view than that soul's prep- 
aration for heaven, I believe God would take men to 
heaven as soon as he converted them." We are saved 



84 fleyiyals of religion. 

to save; ^ve are blessed to bless; we are lighted to 
light. " See that man," cried Dr. Guthrie, alluding 
to one who was content with his own enjoyment of 
gospel privileges; "see that man; his religion is just 
the size of his coffin, exactly large enough for him- 
self, but no larger." Spurgeon says: ''Do not give 
a penny for that man's piety that will not spread it- 
self. Unless we desire others to taste the benefits 
we have enjoyed, we are either inhuman monsters or 
outrageous hypocrites. I think the last most likely." 
Dr. Charles Hodge says in his Commentary on Ro- 
mans, at ix. 1, 2: '*If we can view, unmoved, the per- 
ishing condition of our fellow-men, or are unwilling 
to make sacrifices for their benefit, we are very dif- 
ferent from Paul, and from Him who wept over 
Jerusalem, and died for our good ux^on Mount Cal- 
vary." 

There are two words of action which we are con- 
stantly finding on the pages of the Bible. One is, 
''Come;" the other is, "Go." The prophet Isaiah 
cries: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, 
and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money 
and without price." ( Isa. Iv. 1.) We know who calls: 
"Gome unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew xi. 28.) 
We read on the last page of the Book: "The Spirit 
and the bride say. Come. And let him that heareth 
say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
'whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
(Eevelation xxii. 17.) We say, "Come," to that 
one who is poor and needy; to that one who is con- 
sciously helpless and hopeless. But having come, 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNEIIS. 85 

and having received grace and good in coming, the 
command now is, ''Go! ' "Son, go work to-day in 
my vineyard." (Matthew xxi. 28.) ''Go home to 
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord 
hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on 
thee." (Mark v. 19.) "Go out into the highways 
and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my 
house may be filled." (Luke xiv. 23.) "Go ye 
therefore and teach all nations." (Matthew xxviii. 
19.) The gospel brings men to their feet. This 
word, "Go," is a word that means action, movement, 
effort, struggle, persistence. It harmonizes with 
nothing that is easy, quiet, or passive. God expecls 
and requires his people to be energized, to be zeal- 
ously affected, to be all in a stir, as laborers together 
with him, in working out the recovery of the world. 

Common humanity goads us to seek the salvation 
of the lost. The vengeances of Almighty God are 
awaiting the unbelieving and the defiled. There is 
but one Name given among men whereby they may 
be saved; there is but one Fountain at which there is 
cleansing; there is but one Door that opens unto eter- 
nal life. Each day brings nearer the other day when 
destinies will be forever appointed; the going of each 
sun cuts shorter the season of mercy, the opportunity 
for finding God. The unsaved do not realize their 
danger; they do not recognize their peril: they are 
asleep, and ruin is coming down upon them. We 
could not see a irjan drowning and be unaffected. 
Who ever heard that wild cry, "Help! help! help!" 
issuing from a burning building, and failed to do 
everything possible to rescue the unfortunate one? 
"Relief expeditions" have commanded the sympa- 



86 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

tliy, resources, and genius of nations. Tiie least Ave 
can do and be guiltless is to warn with tears, to de- 
clare the whole counsel of God, to exhibit the joys 
and beauties of holiness, and to beseech by the mer- 
cies of Christ. Tes; common humanity urges us to 
this zeal. The fingers of Duty all point this way. 
Conscience finds utterance and insists with its pecul- 
iar eloquence. And lo! out of the depths of dark- 
ness and despair the voices of the damned are shriek- 
ing: "Go to mij brethren, if you are indifferent to 
your own and all the rest of the world — go, at least 
to mi/ breihre}i, and appeal unto them and constrain 
them, till they have made sure their escape from 
these flames in which I am tormented! " 

Yonder is a field white unto the harvest; the stalks 
are bending heavy heads. Too long it has already 
stood ungathered. Where are the reapers? And, 
look; see there, rising in the sky an awful cloud 
bursting with winds, laden with hailstones, charged 
with fiery wrath. Hear its threatening thunders, 
and the roar of the tempest, impatient for its prey. 
Where are the reapers? When the cloud has broken 
over the field, it will be too late to marshal the reap- 
ers! too late to thrust in the sickle! too late to save 
the golden grain! The harvest will be irremediably 
lost! 

Tou rejoice in the light and warmth, the pleasure 
and plenty, of the king's banquet hall. His banners 
over you are all of love, and you sit beneath his 
shadow with sweet delight. "All things are yours." 
With Jesus Christ you are joint heir to every star 
and every world. But look out upon th^ common 
ways of life! How full they are of the thirsty, the 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 87 

liungTy, the blind, the wounded, the sick, the dying, 
the dead! For them too these gospel lights were 
kindled; for them too this table of good things was 
spread; for them too these vials of joy were ojoened. 
They know not what to think, what to hope, what to 
do. Go out there, into the highways and the hedges, 
into the byways and the corners, and invite them in, 
tell them to come. Tell them? invite them? God 
forgive the nse of those words in that connection. 
''Compel them,'' says the Master, "to come in, that my 
house may be filled." Bring to bear upon them en- 
treaty after entreaty, warning after warning, prayer 
after prayer, till they answer: 

I yield, I yield ! 

I can hold out no more : 
I sink, by dying love compelled, 

And own Thee conqueror! 

Bishop J. C Keener is credited with having char- 
acterized Methodism as a ''providential agency for 
worrying people into the church." The characteriza- 
tion is superlatively apt and striking. The writer of 
these lines blesses God_ that he was brought up under 
the influences of a church which would not let him 
alone till he renounced darkness for light, and turned 
from the love and service of sin to the love and 
service of God. " Compel them! " That is the com- 
mand. Add insistence to insistence, constraint to 
constraint, till they surrender to God's good will con- 
cerning them. Tes, says Jude, ^'Of some have com- 
passion, making a difference; and others save with 
fear, pulling them out of the fire." (Verses 22, 23.) 
There are many who will never be saved unless they 
are " worried " out of impenitence, and " worried " out 



88 EEVIVALS OF KELIGION. 

of unbelief, and " worried" out of sin, and "worried" 
on^ to God. Would that every Methodist read his 
calling and election in the pregnant words of the 
thoughtful and earnest Bishop! 

Souls are perishing. Dying myriads are around 
us. Perishing not only on South Sea Islands, and in 
China's crowded provinces, and under Ethiopia's 
tierce sun, but in our own land, in our own cities, in 
our own midst. Hell is enlarging and bestirring it- 
self to meet the teeming multitudes going down into 
its eternal torments. There they go, through the 
streets we walk, through the doors we pass; yea, from 
our own firesides and most sacred circles, and pass 
pulpits and church steeples and Sunday-school rooms 
and altars of prayer. If ever opportunity meant 
responsibility, it means so here. So Paul felt, and 
wrote: "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise." 
(Romans i. 14 ) We read at Ezekiel iii. 18: " When I 
say unto tlie wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou 
givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the 
wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the 
same wricked man shall die in his iniquity; but his 
blood will I require at thine hand." If we enter 
into the meaning of this impressive text, we will keep 
saying in our hearts, and with a corresponding conse- 
cration, 

Tis all my business here below, 
To cry, Behold the Lamb ! 

But it is not enough to recognize effort for the 
salvation of souls as our "business here below." It 
is that certainly, and it is more than that. It is more 
than our duty; more than our obligation. It is the 



SOLICITUDE FOE SINNERS. ^ 89 

most distinguished privilege possible out of heaven. 
With our present light, we cannot conceive of any 
more exalted distinction in the world beyond than 
this of being ''laborers together v/ith God" in seek- 
ing the lost and bringing them home. ''When we 
consider the fact that Jesus loves every soul for 
which he poured out his life, and that he counts 
every service done to that soul for his sake as done 
to himself, we cannot think of that service as mere 
duty. Love impels to it, and love revels in its doing. 
AVhat pleasure it is to do for one who is dear to a 
friend dearer to us than our own life! How thank- 
ful we are for an opportunity of this sort! And when 
our Divine Friend permits us to do for him in doing 
for one of his, how pleased we should be, and how 
grateful!" Frederick W. Faber said: "It is an im- 
mense mercy of God to allow anyone to do the least 
thing which brings souls nearer to him." The best 
development of this responsibility for souls is pos- 
sible only w^hen it is recognized and rejoiced in as 
the greatest privilege and the highest honor. That 
delight will supply holy and inexhaustible enthu- 
siasm. 

A passion for souls is a mark of relationship to 
Jesus Christ. It is the first fruits of the Spirit. 
There is everything essential to the heart of a mur- 
derer in the question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
Carlyle argues that ''man is emphatically a proselyt- 
ing creature." Spurgeon adds: "Assuredly the new 
creature is such." Thomas Manton says: "A good 
man is always seeking to make others good, as fire 
turneth all things about it into fire." 

From the missionaries in China comes a beauti- 



90 ^ REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

fill story of a military graduate there who had long 
suffered with a cataract, and who was successfully 
treated at a hospital in Hankow. His home was two 
hundred and fifty miles away. On his return home 
he published the remarkable cure he had experienced 
and the skill of the surgeons at the hospital. His 
story attracted attention and made its impression. 
Others with imperfect vision and blind, as he had 
been, began to beg him to lead them to the doctor 
who could give sight to the blind. A rope was pro- 
vided and the blind men laid hold of it, and led of 
that one whose eyes had been healed, the strange 
procession started to the hospital. 

Shall we whose souls are lighted 
With wisdom from on high, 

Shall we to men benighted 
The lump of life deny? 

Dr. Guthrie tells of a rescued sailor, who, as soon 
as restored to consciousness, said, " There's another 
man to save." So is spent the strength of the con- 
verted in desire and prayer to God, " There's another 
man to save." Sam Jones heard of a man, whose life 
had been full of evil, at last taken captive of a re- 
vival and gloriously saved, who cried out in solici- 
tude for those with whom he had consorted in 
wickedness: " O Lord, you've had such good luck on 
me, please try your hand on some of them other sin- 
ners!" The evangelist truly remarks: "That was a 
grand prayer." In Middle Georgia, two young men, 
bosom friends, during a protracted meeting, went to 
the altar for prayer, and knelt side by side. Soon 
one of them got up and began to praise God for 
mercy through Jesus Christ. His father and other 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 91 

loved ones embraced him, and the church was in a 
rapture of sympathy. He returned to the pew he 
had occupied at the first of the service and sat down 
for a moment; then he went back to the altar and 
knelt again. Many were surprised, and wondered 
what it meant. One went to him and asked: "Why 
have^you come back? Are not all your doubts gone? " 
He answered: "Oh, yes; all gone; praise the Lord; 
but my poor friend here — he's in darkness yet;" and 
with tears and groans he made supplication for his 
" poor friend " till prayer prevailed. This solicitude 
exhibited on account of his friend was a clearer and 
more satisfactory evidence of his being born again 
than were the shouts of glory with which he had 
filled the house of God. 

A New Zealand girl was taken to England to be 
educated. She became a sincere Christian. As the 
time drew near for her return to New Zealand, some 
of her English friends and acquaintances tried to 
dissuade her. They said: "Why do you go back to 
New Zealand? or why should you? and how can you? 
You are at home in England now. Tou love its 
shady lanes and clover fields. It suits your health. 
Besides, you may be shipwrecked on the ocean. You 
may be killed and eaten by your own people. Every- 
body will have forgotten you." Instantly she de- 
manded: "What? Do you think I could keep the 
good news to myself? Do you think I could be con- 
tent with having got pardon and peace and eternal 
life for myself, and not go and tell my dear father 
and mother how they can get it too? I would go, if 
I had to swim there!" 

Said that eloquent preacher and tireless servant of 



92 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

Christ, George Whitefield: ''As soon as I was con- 
verted, I wanted to be the means of the conversion 
of all I had ever known. There were a number of 
young men that I had played cards with, that I had 
sinned with, that I had transgressed with; the first 
thing I did was to go to their houses, to see what I 
could do for their salvation ; nor could I rest nntil I 
had the pleasure of seeing many of them brought to 
the Saviour." The record remains of a very old man 
who was moved just as Whitefield was. He made a 
list of his former associates, and gave himsell: to 
systematic and ceaseless prayer and effort for their 
salvation. , There were one hundred and sixteen 
names on his list, some of whom were infidels, 
drunkards, gamblers, and blasphemers. Prayer and 
faith prevailed. Over one hundred of them were 
converted and brought into the church, before the 
old man died. 

What a passion for souls is manifested in the 
prayer of that devout man, William Carvosso: "I 
felt such a longing desire to save souls that I said in 
my heart to the Lord, that if he should condescend to 
use me to bring one more soul to himself, I would 
forever praise him for it." More familiar is the cry 
of the heart of John Knox: "Souls, O my Master; 
give me the souls of Scotland, or I die!" Another 
worker in the harvest field prayed: "Give me souls, 
or take mine." It was said of AUeine, that "he was 
infinitely and insatiably greedy for the conversion of 
souls." Rutherford wrote his people: "My witness 
is above, that your heaven would be two heavens to 
me, and the salvation of you all as tw^o salvations to 
me." Finney states that in the revivals he promoted 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 93 

the peox^le would pray " whole nights, and until their 
bodily strength was quite exhausted, for the conver- 
sion of souls around them." He says of himself: "I 
felt almost as if I should stagger under the burden 
that was on my mind, and I struggled and groaned 
and agonized; and could not present the case before 
God in words, but only in groans and tears." If not 
moved by this showing, look back to Sinai. See 
Moses putting himself between an offended God and 
a thrice-guilty people. Hear him urging: " Yet now, 
if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me I 
pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written." 
(Exodus xxxii. 32.) Eead also the protestation of 
Paul: '' I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my con- 
science also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 
that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in 
my heart. For I could wish that myself were ac- 
cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen 
according to the flesh." (Romans ix. 1-3.) 

There are not many Methodist preachers, if any, 
who will fail to find their hearts responsive to the 
following sentiment from Eev. J. Y. AVatson, D.D. : 
" We would rather gaze on the starting tear that 
traced the rough and bronzed cheek of some honest 
yeoman, and see in that tear a prophetic ocean of 
eternal felicity, in some log schoolhouse, in which 
the spirit of revivals was abroad upon its welcome 
mission, than look for an hour upon the most mag- 
nificent pageant that ever issued from the gate of 
St. Peter's. We would rather hear a half-suppressed 
'Halleluiah,' a 'Bless God. O my soul, and forget 
not all his benefits,' uttered by some aged mother in 
our Israel, followed by the stifled groan and drooped 



94 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

head of that young man for whom she had so long 
prayed; we would rather listen to such music, while 
the faithful preacher presses the truth that Jesus 
saves, and saves now, than to stand for an hour amid 
the magnificent aisles and arches of the cathedral of 
the Bishop of Canterbury, and listen to the deep- 
toned organ, whose combined voices, almost like the 
seven thunders of the throne, sweep in a gust of mere 
artificial and head music up to that God who alone 
delighteth in the worship of the broken and contrite 
hearted." Those who ever heard Dwight L. Moody 
will believe that he spoke just what was in his soul, 
when he said: "After I am dead and gone, I would 
rather have a man come to my grave, and drop a tear 
and say, ' Here lies the man who converted me, who 
brought me to the cross of Christ' — I would rather 
have this than a column of gold reaching to the skies, 
built in my honor." O brother, do you not think, 
are you not sure^ that that peerless ambassador of 
heaven, the apostle Paul, was infinitely happier that 
night he was in jail at Philippi, his back bruised and 
bleeding, his feet fast in the stocks, when the alarmed 
and trembling keeper sprang into his cell and fell be- 
fore him and cried, '* What must I do to be saved? " 
— are you not sure that he was infinitely happier 
then and there, seeing the truth as it is in Jesus take 
possession of one man's soul, than he ever could have 
been splitting metaphysical hairs in the university 
of Gamaliel, or rounding brilliant periods to an ap- 
plauding Sanhedrin? The angels rejoice when sin- 
ners repent, and there is music in the Father's house 
when prodigals come home. That one is most an- 
gelic, most heavenly, most like God, who is most 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 95 

abundant in sympathy for tlie lost and in praise for 
their salvation. 

If the question be asked, *'How many must our 
sympa,thy and solicitude include?" there is but one 
answer. As many as the Bible includes; as many as 
Calvary includes; as many as the love of God in- 
cludes. The gospel of the Bible is a "whosoever 
gospel;" the gospel of Calvary is an "every creature 
gospel;" the gospel of the love of God is a "whole 
world gospel." In the heart of no Christian is there 
possible a feeling of unconcern toward the spiritual 
interests of the most degraded. And yet we have to 
confess that there are many — alas! too many — who 
have much cause to say, " No man cares for my soul! " 
They slip out of the hearts and minds of converted 
people, and are given up for hopelessly lost. No 
prayer is ever made for them; no tear ever falls for 
them at the mercy seat; no one ever believes for 
them; no one ever talks to them of Jesus and his 
love. They are everywhere — these doubly lost; in 
the city's crowded tenement, in the country's squalid 
hovel. 

One such unfortunate lived in a western town, not 
many years ago. He was a blacksmith, and a most 
wretchedly wicked man. He knew everything that 
was blatant and blasphemous in infidelity. He hated 
everything that was good and loved everything that 
was bad. He studied to make himself an irritation 
to all who believed God, not even sparing his wife, 
who did the best she could in the patience and king- 
dom of Jesus. This man was given up as altogether 
beyond moral recovery, and so indeed he seemed. 
Prayer was made as though he had no existence; 



96 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

cliurclies were opened and shnt, but never with ref- 
erence to him; the gospel was preached and mercy 
offered, but no one connected him with God's mes- 
sage to the w^orld. 

A few miles in the country from the blacksmith's 
town, there lived an old couple. Father and Mother 
Brown. They were close to ninety years of age. 
Theirs had been lives of conscious acceptance with 
God, and of patient, unremitting devotedness to him; 
and they were waiting, without a sorrow and without 
a fear, for the promised home-going. 

Very early one morning, the old man awoke, terri- 
bly agitated, and began to call his wife: "Get up, 
wife; get up!" 

"Why, old man," she said, "what's the matter ?" 

He answered: "I can't tell you now what's the mat- 
ter, for I must start a fire in the kitchen. I want 
you to get breakfast ready as soon as you can, for 
I've got to go to town this morning." 

"Tou go to town this morning!" she exclaimed; 
"why, you are out of your head. Tou can't go to 
town. You haven't got any way of going, and I 
know you can't walk." 

" Don't tell me what I can't do," the old man per- 
sisted; "I tell you Tve got to go to town! I had a 
dream last night; and — well — I'll go and make the 
fire, and then tell you all about it." 

His wife followed him, the breakfast was prepared, 
and when the meal w^as over the old man started to 
town. It was a long and weary w^ay for an old man 
to walk, but some strange strength was supplied him, 
and without stopping to rest he kept on. The village 
was reached. Through the main street he trudged, 



SOLICITUDE FOK SINNERS. 97 

then into a narrow cross street, and made to the shop 
of "Devil Jolm," the blacksmith. 

"Fatlier Brown!" he exclaimed in great amaze- 
ment; "what are you doing here? and so soon in the 
morning?" 

The old man answered: "That's just what I've 
come to tell you. Let's go inside, where I can sit 
down, for I'm tired." 

Together they went into the shop, and when he 
was seated, the old man said: "Jolm, I had a dream 
last night, and I have come to tell you about it. I 
dreamed that that hour I have thought about so 
much and tried to keep ready for so loug was come. 
It was my time to die. And it was just like I thought 
it was going to be, for it was just like the Lord prom- 
ised it should be. I wasn't the least bit afraid. How 
could I be? My room was full of angels, and they 
all spoke to me, and I loved them and knew they 
loved me. Then some of them stooped and slipped 
their arms under me, and away we went. Beyond 
the hills and beyond the clouds we mounted through 
the starry skies. Oh, how they sang! I never heard 
anything like it in all my life. On we swept, and on, 
till one of them said, 'Look yonder, now; there's 
heaven!' O John, I can't tell you how I felt when 
I knew I was in sight of heaveu; nor can I tell you 
what I saw when I looked. I don't believe anyone 
could tell it. It was so peaceful, so beautiful, so 
pure, and so glorious! As we drew nearer I saw the 
gates swinging open, and with even faster wing than 
we had come we swept through them into the city. 
Such a welcome! Welcome from everybody; all so 
glad; every hill seemed robed with gladness; it was 
7 



98 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

in the fragrance of the flowers, in the music of every 
harp, in the song of every tongue, in the grasp of 
every hand; gladness everywhere, because I had 
come. Why, they made over me like I was some- 
body, when I was only a poor sinner saved by Jesus' 
blood. I found all my children there — not one of 
them lost; my boy, that you used to be with and play 
with so much when you went to school together, was 
there; and your old mother, who was in my classes 
when I went to school. And, after a time, I don't 
know how long it w^as, I saw the same angels who 
brought me bringing another, and it was my dear, 
sweet wife. I loved her more than ever when they 
brought her to me there. She was fairer than the 
day we married. We sat under the trees of life to- 
gether, and walked by the river that flows from the 
throne of God. So happy! And I saw the angels 
bring in others, others that you love and I love; and 
so the years of eternity rolled. Then, John, all at 
once it came to me that I hadn't seen you anywhere; 
and I set out to look for you. I went into every 
street, looked everywhere, asked everybody, but I 
could get no trace of you. I was distressed, more 
than you can know; and I went to my Lord, my 
precious Saviour, and asked him where you were. 
And, O John, that you could have seen how sorry 
he was, when he told me that you hadn't come. ^Not 
come?' I said; 'why didn't John come?' And he 
wept, just as I suppose he often did when he was 
down here, and told me, 'Nobody ever asked John to 
come!^ Oh, I fell at his feet, I bathed them with my 
tears, I laid my cheeks upon them, and cried, ' Blessed 
Lord, just let me out of here half an hour, and I'll 



SOLICITUDE FOB SINNERS. 99 

go and ask liim to come; I'll give him the invitation.' 
And right then and there I woke up. It was begin- 
ning to get light in the east ; and I was so glad I was 
alive, so I could come and ask you to go to heaven; 
and now here I am, and I have told you my dream, 
and I want you to go." 

With other words the old man urged the royal in- 
vitation, but the blacksmith stood as one petrified. 
He could not speak nor move. Father Brown got 
up, and saying, "Goodby, John; remember you've 
got the invitation; remember you are asked to come," 
took his staff and started home. 

Then the blacksmith seemed to come to himself, 
and as one recovering from a magician's charm he 
set out to pursue the labors of the day. But ev- 
erything went wrong. The bellows would not work 
right, the hammers would not strike right, the nails 
would not go in right, the horses would not stand 
right. " O God, be merciful to me a sinner! " he be- 
gan to sob at last, and leaving his shop, went home. 
He told his wife of Father Brown's visit. " Blessed 
be God!" she said; "we will send the horse and 
buggy and have him to come back." "Yes," he 
added, "fori mean to accept that invitation, and I 
want him to pray God to keep me true and stead- 
fast to the end." The rest of this story need not be 
related. Alas, alas! there are many, many who never 
get the invitation that is meant for them, and for 
whom no one ever makes effort. 

In a revival of religion the leader ought to look 
out for such cases as "John." While prayer and 
endeavor are made for friends and loved ones, the 
children of the Sunday school and young people of 



100 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

the congregation, let liim suggest: '* Is tliere yet any- 
one for whom we have not specially pleaded? yet any- 
one whom we may have overlooked? We are taught 
to make supplication for all men; to hope and strive 
and have faith for the salvation of every creature. 
Who are we that we should slight or ignore anyone? " 
Let him plead with all his soul the cause of the 
*^ hard cases," of the '* hopeless cases," of the "utterly 
lost cases," till the people realize their duty and 
break through stone walls of indifference with in- 
domitable love and enthusiastic persuasion. 

Down in the human heart, 

Crushed by the tempter, 
Feehngs lie buried that grace can restore : 

Touched by a loving hand, 

Wakened by kindness, 
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more. 

The writer has contended that solicitude for sin- 
ners is one of the first realizatic^is of a regenerated 
heart. He contends as w^ell that it is one of the last 
realizations. How often is it that the dying spend 
their last breath in jorayer to God for the unsaved! 
So died the Lord himself. On the cross he loved his 
murderers and desired their salvation, and prayed, 
''Father, forgive them: for they know not what they 
do.'' (Luke xxiii. 34.) So died Stephen, the first 
martyr, "calling upon God" with a " loud voice," just 
as "he fell asleep:" "Lord, lay not this sin to their 
charge." (Acts vii. 60.) So died that valiant old 
Methodist class leader, David S toner, in an agony of 
desire and supplication: "Lord, save souls; save them 
by thousands!" 

Living or dying — rather, living and dying — there is 



SOLICITUDE FOR SINNERS. 101 

no other zeal to which we should be so unreservedly 
and unsw-erviugly dedicated. The Bible says: "He 
that wduiieth souls is wise." (Proverbs xi. 30.) It 
again says: *' They that be wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament; and they that turn 
many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." 
(Daniel xii. 3.) It says at another place: "He who 
converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
sins." (James v. 20.) In the world of glory, the 
crowns that have jewels set with the most especial 
care, the mansions that are the most richly adorned, 
the places that are closest up to the throne, are for 
those who lived but to urge men to " escape the dam- 
nation of hell" and to charm the ears and hearts of 
penitents with the music of Jesus' name. 

A Methodist preacher who was sight-seeing in 
Birmingham, Ala., found on one of the back streets 
of that city, hanging over the door of a very unpre- 
tentious place, a remarkable sign: ^' Soles Saved 
Here!" It caught his interest at once. "Is that 
first word spelled right? " he asked himself, and then 
resolved, "I will go in and see w^hat I have found." 
He entered. There was an old cobbler whose busi- 
ness was to put a peg or a stitch into the sole of a 
shoe which could be " saved " by that amount of la- 
bor, while its wearer waited the solitary minute that 
w^as necessary to do it. The old man had quite a 
brisk patronage. The preacher continued his way 
and was soon out of the narrow street, on a splendid 
thoroughfare, passing by one of the large churches 
of the city. He looked up, and thought: "What a 
good sign that would be to emblazon over a church 



102 EEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

door, ' Souls saved here! ' " But would it be the truth 
over every church door? It would bring there the 
weary and heavy laden, the sick, the lame, the halt, 
the blind, prodigals from swine swills, publicans, 
harlots, and many of the chief of sinners. But the 
legend would have to be amended to suit the history 
of some churches. We would have to put a little 
word of two letters before it, and make it read, 
" No souls saved here." That is the truth at some 
churches. What an awful, ghastly, revolting legend 
that would be over a door entering into a temple! 
Would you ever want to worship there? V/ould you 
want to have your membership there? Would you 
want your children baptized at its altar or raised 
under its influence? But the realitij is as atrftd, as 
ghastly, as revolting as the legend! Indeed, it is more 
so! 

Whatever else a church be, whatever else a church 
have, is insignificant in comparison to the glory that 
is set before it as a rescuer of the perishing. What- 
ever else a church be, whatever else a church have, 
if it is not athirst for souls and intent upon leading 
men to Christ, it is a cumberer of the ground, a 
curse to the world, an offense unto heaven. 

Of a certain church in New England an impress- 
ive record remains. The members of it were re- 
solved that every Sunday should be a day of triumph 
in the Lord. They came to church with prayer for 
the salvation of souls, they sang with prayer, and 
they listened to the word with prayer. The pastor 
preached just as his people prayed. Every sermon 
had a net in it, a net let down for souls. So sure 
were they that the promises were true, they would 



SOLICITUDE FOK SINNERS. 103 

inquire at the conclusion of every service, " Who was 
converted? " " What prodigal has returned home? " 
"Who has decided to come out on the Lord's side? " 
There was a constant ingathering. Converts were 
counted as the dew of the morning and the kingdom 
of heaven had its manifestation in power. After 
aw^hile people of another mind worshiped at this 
church, and ministers of another mind stood behind 
its pulpit. Zeal for salvation gave place to zeal for 
style, and solicitude for sinners gave place to solici- 
tude for worldly patronage. They " took people into 
the church " instead of teaching them to repent and 
turn to God, and were pleased with forms bereft of 
power. The church at last went over into Universal- 
ism, and in that relationship has been dwindling to 
nothing. There is no ingenuity that can calculate 
just to what dreadful-ism any church may come 
which forgets and neglects to pray and weep and 
watch for souls. 

On New York avenue in the city of Vanity Fair 
is a merchant who has a large and splendid store. 
He — w^ell, let us go to see him and give him a chance 
to speak for himself. This is his establishment — 
elegant; and* here is our friend Mr. One. We ex- 
change greetings, and ask, "How's business?" He 
answers wdth much interest: "First class, first class. 
Just see: I have the best location in the city, the 
largest stock of goods, the finest counters, the hand- 
somest clerks, and run the biggest advertisements in 
the dailies." We wait an hour, then another, and 
we notice that no one comes in to buy. " Look here, 
friend One," we say, "where are your customers?" 
He answers, wdth a trifle of impatience: "Customers? 



104 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

I'm not a God. I can't create customers, nor order 
the inclinations of the world. If people won't buy, 
how can I help it? I've got the goods, the counters, 
the clerks, the — ." We venture to interpose, "How 
long has it been since you had a customer?" He 
consumes several minutes in a mental calculation, 
then counts awhile on his fingers, finally retires to 
his counting-room, calls several clerks to his assist- 
ance, and presently emerges with the answer: *'The 
books show that two years and seven months ago 
we credited a very worthy old colored woman for a 
spool of thread, which we believe she would have 
paid for had not the judge, before whom she was 
tried on several counts, sent her to the penitentiary." 
He calls that sort of business ''first class." We are 
astonished, and warn our friend that for all his wealth 
of goods and shining counters and smiling clerks 
and flaming advertisements, he is on the way to 
bankruptcy and ruin. Here is another Vanity Fair 
acquaintance. Let us speak to him: the Rev. Mr. 
Two. " Glad to see you, Brother Two, and glad to 
see you looking so well; how is your church getting 
along?" He is delighted to answer: "Splendidly, 
first class, fine, very fine! We have goi the highest 
steeple, the biggest organ, the most stylish congre- 
gation, pay the largest salary, and our new soprano 
— well, I wish you could hear her when there is a 
house full and she is feeling good. We are ahead of 
everything here." "And, brother, how are the spir- 
itual interests of your church doing? What conver- 
sions?" " Conversions? How do I know when any- 
body is converted? Nor am I a God to convert 
them." "Well, how many professions of religion 



SOLICITUDE FOE SINNEES. 105 

and applications for church membership did you 
have last year?" "Eeally, now;" and he is very 
nervous, ''really, now; this is an exceedingly diffi- 
cult place for work of that kind; there is no margin 
for evangelism here: so I am content to let the Crea- 
tor — all these things are in his hands, you know — I 
am but a man; " and soon, ad nauseawL But he called 
what he was doing first class, splendid, and very fine, 
and made his boast in superlatives. There is no 
Mr. One. He is a myth. The production of such a 
fool as he is an utter impossibility. There are Mr. 
Twos not a few. Finuey writes of his pastor: "He 
informed me that he did not know that he had ever 
been instrumental in converting a sinner." Their 
lines cast in pleasant places, but nobody saved! The 
congregation large and rich and influential, but no- 
body saved! The steeple scrapes the sky, the win- 
dows are glorious with the colors of southern sun- 
sets, the carpet is as bright as a prairie in bloom, but 
nobody saved! "O my soul, come not thou into 
their secret: unto their assembly, mine honor, be not 
thou united!" It is unutterably bad and miserable 
and wretched; and the ax is already laid at the root 
of the barren tree, and soon Justice will silence for- 
ever the pleas of Mercy, and command: 

Cut it down, cut it down; 

Spare not the fruitless tree ; 
It spreads a harmful shade around, 
Tt spoils what else were useful ground, 
No fruit for years on it I've found ; 

Cut it down, cut it down ! " 

"Of Zion it shall be said. This and that man was 
born in her: and the Highest himself shall establish 



106 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up 
the people, that this man was born there." (Psalm 
Ixxxvii. 5, 6. ) In the literature of heaven, it is the 
regeneration of souls that is celebrated. In the day 
of the church's elevation to eternal and heavenly 
places, it is for sinners rescued from the pit that 
God will praise and reward it. Other communions* 
may be satisfied when something else and something 
less than this is accomplished, but surely Methodists 
who have no human succession, no hoary traditions, 
no venerable piles, no ecclesiastical millinery, and 
no troublesome scholarship to make them dizzy- 
headed — surely Methodists can only vex their souls 
and sorrow as women in travail, if their courts be 
not thronged with broken-hearted penitents who 
weep and prolong the cry of the publican, " God be 
merciful unto me a sinner!" and exulting converts 
in miracles of pure delight, singing: 

'Tis done: the great transaction's done! 
I am my Lord's, and he is mine! 

This is Christianity in earnest. This is Pentecost 
returned. This is the old-time religion! This is the 
answer to the prayer, " Our Father, who art in heaven, 
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is the 
longed-for eventuation of the mission of the Son of 
Man, who came ''to seek and to save that which was 
lost." 



CHAPTEE V. 

REVIVAL PRAYER. 

EARNEST and unremitting prayer must precede 
and attend all efforts to promote a revival of 
religion. 

This may be argued from those passages of Scrip- 
ture which exhibit the duty of prayer in everything. 
" Men ought always to xoray and not to faint." (Luke 
xviii. 1. ) ' ' Continuing instant in prayer." (Romans 
xii. 12.) ''Praying always with all prayer and sup- 
plication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with 
all perseverance and supplication for all saints." 
(Ephesians vi. 18.) "In everything by prayer and 
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be 
made known unto God." (Philippians iv. 6.) 

It may be argued again from those passages of 
Scripture which set before us prayer as our privilege 
in the boundless mercy and grace of God. Are we 
not encouraged to pray for revivals of religion in 
these promises wdiich follow, as well as the many 
others like them which might be adduced? "What 
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that 
ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 
xi. 24.) "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and 
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that 
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall 
be opened." (Lnke xi. 9, 10.) "Whatsoever ye 
shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father 

(107) 



108 REVIVALS OF BELIGION. 

may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any- 
thing in my name, I will do it." (John xiv. 13^ 14.) 

It may be argued again from those passages of 
Scripture which direct us to pray ourselves out of trou- 
ble and embarrassment and distress. Some of these 
have especial reference to the conditions which vex 
righteous souls and make them long for times of re- 
freshing from the presence of the Lord. ''If my 
people^ which are called by my name, shall humble 
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn 
from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven 
and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 
(2 Chronicles vii. 14.) "Let the priests, the minis- 
ters of the Lord, weep between the porch and the 
altar, and let them say. Spare thy people, O Lord, and 
give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen 
should rule over them; wherefore should they say 
among the people, Where is their God? Then will 
the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people." 
(Joel ii. 17, 18.) "They shall call on my name, and 
I will hear them: I will say. It is my people: and 
they shall say. The Lord is my God." (Zechariah 
xiii. 9.) 

It may be argued again from those passages of 
Scripture which advertise the true source of all 
spiritual help. "Our fathers trusted in Thee: they 
trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried 
unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee 
and were not confounded." (Psalm xxii. 4, 5. Vide 
Psalm xliv. 1-3.) "When the enemy shall come in 
like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a 
standard against him." (Isaiah lix. 19.) "A man 
can receive nothing, except it be given him from 



REVIVAL PRAYER. 109 

heaven." (John iii. 27.) "I have pLnnted, Apollos 
\Yatered; bat God gave the increase." (1 Corinthians 
iii. 6. ) " Every good gift and every perfect gift is 
from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
lights." (James i. 17.) Revivals of religion come 
from God; or rather, revivals of religion are comings 
of GocL Such a coming was that oue in the city of 
Jerusalem over eighteen hundred years ago, when the 
disciples '' were all filled with the Holy Ghost," and 
"the same day there were added unto them about 
three thousand souls." At the second verse of the 
second chapter of the book of Acts are two very sig- 
nificant words, "From heaven." Revivals of re- 
ligion that bring heaven, come from heaven. So that 
one which started in the house of Cornelius. It was 
identical with the pentecostal revival in origin, as 
well as in power and results. It came from the 
Supreme Seat of grace and glory. It is impossible 
to overstate our entire dependence upon God for a 
revival of religion. This dependence must be felt 
unto the center of our being, acknowledged with 
unfeigned humility, w^hile we plead with tears and 
earnestness and faith the exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises. 

It may be argued again from those instances given 
us in the Scriptures of holy men of old, led of the 
Spirit of God, praying for revivals of religion. 
David cries: " Wilt thou not revive us again ; that thy 
people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm Ixxxv. 6.) So 
Habakkuk: "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst 
of the years, in the midst of the years made known; 
in wrath remember mercy." (Habakkuk iii. 2.) 
And Jeremiah: "Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, 



110 KEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old." 
(Lamentations v. 21.) 

It may be argued again from those passages of 
Scripture in which revivals are promised and fore- 
told, as discussed in our first chapter. 

The great revivalists and evangelists testify to the 
absolute necessity of prayer for revivals of religion. 
Finney says: " Prayer is an essential link in the 
chain of causes that lead to a revival." He says 
again: "In regard to my own experience, I will say 
that unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do 
notting. If even for a day or an hour I lost the 
spirit of grace and supplication, I found myself 
unable to preach with power and efficiency, or to 
win souls by personal conversation." Caughey says: 
'^ Knee work! knee w^ork!! knee work!!! This is the 
secret. * Give me a revival, convert sinners, or I pine 
away and die,' is a cry that is much thought of in 
heaven ; nor will He who pities the groanings of the 
distressed soul treat it with indifference. He will 
come down out of the holy place, and make bare his 
arm in the sight of all the people; wound the dragon 
and cut Eahab in pieces. Then shall the feeblest 
servant of God often thrash the mountains, and beat 
the hills to chaff; one shall chase a thousand and two 
put ten thousand to flight, and the slain of the Lord 
shall be many. Let any minister (who has not mis- 
taken his call) thus plead with God, while, week 
after week, every night, from a full and bleeding 
heart, he pours the burning, pointed truths of the 
gospel into the ranks of sinners; and, whatever may 
be his talents, he shall be a joyful witness of a glori- 
ous revival." Thomas Harrison, popularly known as 



EEVIVAL PEAYER. Ill 

the ''boy preacher," was asked during the progress 
of one of his meetings: "How do you account for this 
wonderful work?" He said: "I do not account for 
it at all; it is the work of God." Tlien it was sug-' 
gested: " You must do a good deal of fasting and 
praying to obtain so much power." The response 
came quick: "Ah, there you have it; that is the se- 
cret." Eev. E. Davies, Harrison's biographer, says: 
" He literally wrestles with God like Jacob, and pre- 
vails like Israel. So great is his agony in prayer, 
that sometimes lie is praying on his knees and some- 
times upon his feet; but in either position his senti- 
ment is, * I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.' 
And he is blessed." Joseph H. Weber, the con- 
verted Catholic evangelist, whose labors have been 
and yet are signally owned of God, says of himself: 
" I started out on the faith plan." A friend writes of 
Weber: "Early ho realized that 'prayer moves the 
arm that moves the world,' and wisely he availed 
himself of the benefits of such a mighty leverage. 
He is much of his time on his knees, so much of it 
that it is there that his pantaloons first wear out." 
Moody says: "If there is going to be a great, deep, 
thorough, lasting work, it is going to be in answer to 
prayer. We will not be disappointed if our expec- 
tations are from God. If you look to man you are 
going to be disappointed, but God will never dis- 
appoint you. Ask him to do great and mighty 
things." 

The people as well as the preachers and revival 
workers must pray. The spirit of prayer must ani- 
mate and " enthuse" the cJmrch. The revival will not 
and cannot come until the people get to praying. 



112 EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

This obligation the people cannot delegate to others, 
no matter how gifted and mighty in prayer they may 
be. If the presence of the twelve apostles, and the 
sixteenth century reformers, and the Wesleys, relieved 
the people of the burden of prayer and made them 
feel that they did not need to linger so long in the 
closet, or gather so often in prayer meetings, or bow 
in common supplication at the altar, that presence, 
otherwise so profitable, would be a curse to them and 
an insurmountable obstacle to an intensive or exten- 
sive work of God. Tiie following words of Finney 
to this consideration are wise: "I have seen cases 
in revivals where the church was kept in the back- 
ground in regard to prayer, and persons from abroad 
were called on to pray in all the meetings. This is 
always unhappy, even if there should be a revival, 
for the revival must be less powerful and less salu- 
tary in its influences upon the church. I do not know 
but I have sometimes offended Christians and minis- 
ters from abroad by continuing to call on members 
of the church in the place to pray, and not on those 
from abroad. It was not from any disrespect to 
them, but because the object was to get that church 
which was chiefly concerned to desire and pray and 
agonize for a blessing. In a certain place, a pro- 
tracted meeting was held, with no good result, and 
great evils produced. I was led to make inquiry for 
the reason; and it came out that in all their meet- 
ings not one member of their own church was called 
on to pray, but all the prayers were made by persons 
from abroad. No wonder there was no good done* 
The church was not interested. The leader of the 
meeting meant well, but he undertook to promote a 



EEYIVAL PRAYER. 113 

revival without getting the church there into the 
work." 

In protracted meetings that have drawn a large 
body of visitors, or in which a number of denomina- 
tions and churclies are united, the dangers of falling 
into this mistake are multiplied. The pastors are 
apt to call on each other to pray instead of their 
members. The writer was asked by a brother pastor 
to help him in a protracted meeting. He was glad 
to do so, and reported for service at the appointed 
time. The work opened with many promises of good. 
These were one by one withdrawn, and the church 
overwhelmed in disappointment and shame. During 
that meeting public prayer was offered by no one 
besides the pastor, the evangelist, and the writer. 
There were never more than two prayers at a service. 
Often there was only one prayer. The people mani- 
fested a willingness to be enlisted in the work; among 
them were some devout men and elect women; a re- 
vival of religion was earnestly to be desired at that 
time, and especially in the circles influenced by that 
church. It failed because the people were not drawn 
into a participation in the exercises, without which 
there never has been and never will be a heart- 
stirring, joy-bringing, God-glorifying revival. The 
writer knows of a very unfortunate circumstance in 
connection with another effort to produce a revival. 
A minister asked a brother minister, residing at a 
town twelve miles away, to hold a meeting for him. 
He agreed to do so. The work began. On the sec- 
ond day the visiting minister had forty-seven mem- 
bers of his church to come, and these he used in 
song and testimony and prayer. The next day 
8 



114 KEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

another company of them was present to sing and 
testify and pray. The church, while disposed to the 
frankest and most affectionate hospitality, awoke to 
a sense of wrong, and demanded that the pastor tell 
the visiting brother that he was not asked to furnish 
them exhibitions, but to stir them up to repentance 
and faith and the pursuit of holiness. 

The burden of public prayer in a revival must be 
kept on the heart of the church. The spirit of prayer 
must be extended through the church. Persons 
never before used in that way can be called on to 
lead the prayer. Out of revivals of religion many 
before afraid of their voices in the public assembly 
have come thenceforth by their prayers to divide 
seas, pluck up mountains, and turn to flight the 
armies of united enemies. The new converts ought 
to be urged to public prayer. Nothing is so well 
calculated to advance the interests of a revival as to 
have the newly enlisted consecrate themselves un- 
reservedly and unswervingly to a yet wider extension 
of its influence. When the church gets to praying 
for a revival, it will come. But the praying must be 
all-engrossing, daring, importunate, and with the 
Spirit. 

Pray at church! Come to church with prayer. 
Banish thoughts of trade, fashion, pleasure, sorrow, 
and come to church with hearts full of prayer. En- 
ter the door of the sanctuary with more of prayer. 
When you reach the seat 3^ou mean to occupy, stand 
or kneel, or bow your head for a moment in prayer. 
Pray God to bless the songs to be announced. Pray 
God to bless the Scripture to be read. Pray God to 
bless those who will offer the prayers, and to give 



REVIVAL PRAYER. 115 

tliem the Holy Spirit that they may know for wliat 
and how they ought to pray. If called on, lift your 
voice in prayer. Never mind how you feel abou.t it; 
never mind what others say about it; p)xiy! You 
are not bound to feel at ease, you are not bound to 
be eloquent or powerful or grammatical or above 
criticism, but you are bound, in seasons of revival 
possibilities, to pray. Listen to the sermon with 
prayer. The church that was baptized with fire on 
the day of Pentecost prayed for its preachers: " Grant 
unto thy servants that with all boldness they may 
speak thy word." (Acts iv. 29.) Paul, gifted as 
he was and owned of God, often asked the people 
to pray for him. At Ephesians vi. 19 he requests 
prayer "for me, that utterance may be given unto 
me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known 
the mystery of the gospel." One day when Bunyan 
was preaching, he importuned the people: "When 
you have your conscience sprinkled with the blood of 
Christ, when you have entrance into the holiest, and 
have liberty in prayer, remember me." The writer 
often calls upon the congregation to unite with him 
in a short, silent prayer, bowing their heads, in- 
voking God's blessing upon the inquiry into the 
word, just before he announces his text. No con- 
gregation is prepared to hear a sermon that has not 
prayed God's blessing upon the preacher and upon 
itself. The congregation that prays enjoys a double 
advantage: It will get better preaching (for God 
will answer the prayer), and will be in a better 
frame of mind to hear it. Pray all through the ser- 
mon. Say "Amen" to the prayers of others. That 
is scriptural, when it is from the heart. You do 



116 EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

more for a man when you say "Amen " to bis prayers 
than when you indorse his bank paper. Ever}, cor- 
ner of the church ought to be an ''Amen Corner." 
Make the church a house of prayer. 

Pray at home! Retire from the church asking 
God's blessing upon tlie concluded service. If you 
saw anyone moved by the word, walk home with 
that one, and press the claims of the gospel. Spur- 
geon said to his congregation one day: "I should 
like to take you this morning as Samson did the 
foxes, tie the firebrands of prayer to you, and send 
you among the shocks of corn till you burn the 
w^hole up." Too often members of the church act as 
though their responsibility for the salvation of souls 
was lifted with the pronouncing of the benediction. 
They seem to feel then just as school children do 
when the teacher announces "Recess." Homeward 
they go with joke and laugh. There is really as much 
occasion for seriousness and prayerfulness after the 
service as before it. Some are under conviction, 
some are penitent, some are asking in their hearts 
and ready to ask aloud, " What must I do to be 
saved? " There are some wounded of the Lord who 
are trying to hide their hurt, and some trying to pull 
out the arrows that have pierced their consciences. 
Others are ready to believe, and need such a friend 
as Peter was to Cornelius and his house, or Ananias 
was to Saul of Tarsus. These must be found and 
dealt with as they need. Follow or go home with 
them. Ask them home with you, and have counsel 
and prayer together. 

Keep the family altar crowned with prayer for the 
progress of the work of the revival. Pray for those 



KEVIVAL PRAYEK. 117 

members of the liousehold who most need the in- 
fluence of the revivaL Pray for neighbors and 
friends. When the ark of God was brought up from 
the house of Obed-edom into the city of David, with 
appropriate solemnity and thanksgiving and w4th 
anticipations of national benedictions, and the as- 
sembly was dismissed with gifts from the king, 
" David returned to bless his household." (2 Samuel 
vi. 20.) Into his home he would take the influences 
of the occasion which meant so much to Israel. Let 
us fill our homes and keep them filled with the spirit 
of prayer for the revival of the work of the Lord in 
our m_idst. 

Pray ivhile attending to daily business. In the store 
or shop or office or field or kitchen, or w^herever 
duty carries you, call coDstantly and mightily upon 
God. The old market-crosses of England testified 
that all getting and gaining should be in remembrance 
of and with reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. 
It is sometimes answered, " Business is business." 
Very true; but man's first and chief business is to 
glorify God and enjoy him forever. At a church the 
writer served the first year he preached in the Ken- 
tucky Conference, there was a great revival of re- 
ligion and the people began to pray without ceasing. 
One of the stewards was a farmer. During the re- 
vival, he had to miss a service on account of a field 
that needed plowing. He tried to hire some one to 
do the work for him, but hands were scarce, and when 
the work could be put off no longer he w^ent into the 
field to do it. A younger brother was with him. By 
and by, the voice of revival song was wafted over the 
meadows from the church where the people were en- 



118 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

gaged, and it caught his ears and heart. He had been 
praying for the meeting, and, just then, starting out 
on a new furrow, he jerked the lines and called out 
to his horse, ''AnieUj Bill; amen there!" The service 
at the church was blessed, nor was the plowing hurt 
by the ^'Amens " that were put in it. 

A business man in New York, who was led by his 
pastor to see that he could and that he ought to 
glorify God in his merchandise, went to his book- 
keeper one morning and astonished him by announ- 
cing: " I shall not be the head of the firm after this. 
I have taken a partner, and everything will have to 
be to suit him. He will not be seen, but his rule of 
business is well knov/n. It is the Golden Rule, and 
the head of the concern is Jesus Christ." Then he 
went to every clerk in the establishment with the 
same announcement. During that year, twenty of 
the clerks were converted and became aggressive 
Christians. The earnest spirit of a revival of re- 
ligion will not hurt an honest business. Religious 
obligations and business engagements, instead of 
being set at variance, are to be married in the Lord, 
and with the blessing of God " be fruitful, and multi- 
ply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it! " 

Pray much alone! The Father who sees and hears 
in secret will reward you openly. The privilege of 
secret prayer is more to be valued than that of prayer 
under any other circumstances. All restraint is gone 
when we are alone* with God. We can then pour out 
the fullness of our hearts to him, and exercise our- 
selves in all fervor, and commune with him as friend 
with friend. Without secret prayer, religion degen- 
erates into a name and a pretense, a miserable and 



REVIVAL PRAYER. 119 

melancholy profession. Without much secret j)rayer 
it is impossible to have a genuine revival of religion. 
Only those who pray in secret are capable of pray- 
ing to any purpose at the family altar, in the social 
service, in the public assembly. Secret prayer is 
necessary as a counter agent of the strong tendency 
of modern times to obscure and ignore individualities 
in the combination of parties, societies, and churches. 
The divine plan is not to save the world in blocks, 
but man by man. So, too, it is by dealing with men 
personally, and not in masses, that God keeps them 
in his love and makes them like himself. " I would 
not," said one, ''be hired out of my closet for a 
thousand worlds." 

Revivals often start in closets of prayer. An old 
woman one day stopped her pastor whom she met on 
the street, and said, very much to his amazement: 
''A revival is coming." On being questioned as to 
the reason for her prediction, she said that every day 
she overheard the fervent prayers of a lame old dea- 
con who lived just back of her house. She added: 
"He can't leave his house or work, but he can jjray, 
and his prayers are sure to be answered." God was 
not long in answering the old deacon. The revival 
came, and over one hundred souls were born from 
above and added to the church. 

Finney tells the following: "In a certain town 
there had been no revival for many years; the church 
was nearly run out, the youth were nearly all un- 
converted, and desolation reigned unbroken. There 
lived in a retired part of the town an aged man, a 
blacksmith by trade, and of so stammering a tongue 
that it was painful to hear him speak. On one Fri- 



120 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

day, as he was at work in his shop alone, his mind 
became greatly exercised about the state of the 
church and of the impenitent. His agony became so 
great that he was induced to lay by his work, lock 
the shop door, and spend the afternoon in prayer. 
He prevailed, and on the Sabbath called on the 
minister and desired him to appoint a Conference 
meeting. After some hesitation, the minister con- 
sented, observing, however, that he feared that but 
few would attend. He appointed it the same even- 
ing at a large private house. When evening came, 
more assembled than could be accommodated in the 
house. All was silent for a time, until one sinner 
broke out into tears and said if anyone could pray 
he begged him to pray for liim. Another followed, 
and another, and still another, until it was found 
that persons from every quarter of the town were 
under deep conviction. And what was remarkable 
was that they all dated their conviction at the hour 
when the old man was praying in his shop. A power- 
ful revival followed." 

Moody relates this: " I went to London in '72, and 
one night I spoke in a prayer meeting. I went into 
a Congregational church and preached with no un- 
usual power. There didn't seem to be anything out 
of the regular line in the service. In fact, I was a 
little disappointed. I didn't seem to have much 
liberty there. That evening, at 6:30, I preached to 
men. There seemed to be great power. It seemed 
as if the building was filled with the glory of God, 
and I asked for an expression when I got througli. 
They rose by hundreds. I said, ' They don't know 
what this means,' so I thought I would put another 



liEYIVAL PKAYER. 121 

test. I just asked them to step back into the chapel 
— all those who wanted to become- Christians — but 
no one else. They flocked into the chapel by the 
hundreds. I was in great perplexity; I couldn't un- 
derstand what it meaDt. I went down to Dublin the 
next day, and on Tuesday morning I got a dispatch 
saying, ' Come to London at once and help us.' I 
didn't know what to make of it, but I hastened back 
to London and labored there ten days, and there were 
four hundred names recorded at that time. For 
months I could not understand what it meant; but, 
by and by, I found out. There was in that church a 
poor bedridden woman, and she used to take differ- 
ent ones upon her heart, and she began to pray God 
to revive the whole church. She began to pray God 
to send me to that church. On Sunday morning her 
sister came home and said: 'Who do you think 
preached for us this morning? ' She guessed a num- 
ber of ministers that had been in the habit of ex- 
changing with the pastor, and finally gave it up. 
The sister said: * It was Mr. Moody, from Ameri- 
ca.' The poor woman turned pale and said: ' I know 
what that means; it is in answer to prayer. There is 
going to be a great work here.' The servant brought 
up her dinner, but she said: 'No; no dinner for me 
to-day; I spend this in prayer and fasting.' x4nd 
that night while I was preachiDg she was praying, 
and in answer to her prayers the power of God just 
fell upon the audience." 

Pray icith Others ! Gather together, heart to heart, 
desire to desire, faith to faith, prayer to prayer, as 
the prayer, faith, desire, and heart of one man. The 
Lord Jesus Christ assures us: "If tv/o of you shall 



122 KEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

agree on earth as toucliing anything that they shall 
ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is 
in heaven." (Matthew xviii. 10.) The history of a 
very remarkable revival of religion in a New En- 
gland town was for a long time involved in much ob- 
scurity. Without any known canse, the church be- 
gan to be thronged at the usual services and a spirit 
of contrition to pervade the congregation. Saints 
were lifted to sweeter, brighter experiences, and sin- 
ners began to ask the way of salvation. The pastor 
was obliged to take up services daily, and plenteous 
w^ere the showers of blessing that fell. After many 
months it was developed that two very old men who 
lived a mile apart were bound in a holy covenant to 
meet in a bit of woods half way between their homes, 
every evening at sunset, and pray God to revive his 
work in their midst ere they went down to the grave. 

At Schotts, Scotland, in 1630, the people on a Sab- 
bath day, after commuuion, associated in little com- 
panies, and spent the whole night in prayer for 
perishing sinners. In the number of these importu- 
nate pleaders at the mercy seat was a young minis- 
ter named John Li^dngstone. He was called on to 
preach the Mouday morning sermon; and so great 
was t^e power of the Holy Ghost, given in answer to 
prayer, that four hundred souls were convicted by 
the sermon, and led to believe and rejoice in the Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

In Zlon's Herald, Boston, Mass., the following was 

related: "In the town of W , Conn., one hundred 

e>nd ten years ago, there was not a single church, 
there was not a Christian society. The inhabitants 
numbered four hundred, scattered over a farming 



liEYIVAL PIIAYEK. 123 

territory. Somehow, three women found out that 
they professed to be Christians. A woman advanced 
in years lived in the center of the town; a woman in 
middle life lived three miles away; and another, a 
young woman, lived three miles the other way. They 
had moved into the town at different times, and had 
found out that they were orthodox Christians, mem- 
bers of the church. The old lady said to herself: 'I 
have not long to live; have I done my duty? My 
husband and family know that I have been faithful, 
but have I done my duty to the rest? ' She invited 
the others to come to her house, and they came and 
prayed about it, and finally decided to meet the next 
Thursday afternoon at one o'clock, at the school- 
house, and have a meeting. The old lady said to the 
young woman: 'Tou can sing; will you sing?' 'I 
wilL' She said to the middle-aged woman: ' You can 
read; will you read a few chapters from the Bible?' 'I 
will.' The old lady said: ' I will pray.' So they came 
— one three miles from the east, another three miles 
from the west. The young lady sang, and the mid- 
dle-aged lady read, and the old lady prayed. A man 
going by with a load of wood, seeing the door open, 
thought to close it. He went up to the door, and 
heard the old lady praying. It was a new revelation 
to him. He listened till she said, ^ Amen.' Then she 
asked: 'Shall we come again?' 'Yes, let us come 
next Thursday, at one o'clock.' He got on his load 
and told everybody he saw. The next Thursday, at 
one o'clock, the three ladies arrived there, and found 
the house full. They found three chairs provided 
for them. They went in. The young woman said: 
'I am too diffident to sing before all these people.' 



124 KEVIVALS OF KELIGION. 

The old one said: 'You must sing.' The other wom- 
an said: 'I cannot read before all this company.' 
The old woman said: ' You must read.' So the young 
woman sang, and the other woman read, and the old 
woman prayed; and there was sobbing all over the 
house. In a few days they sent for a minister. There 
stands to-day, where that schoolhonse stood, a little 
white church. I have preached in it — the result of 
the revival prayed for by those three women." 

The people onght to be gathered about the altar 
for exercises of prayer. During a protracted meet- 
ing the writer led in a little Kentucky city, after a 
week or ten days of successful efforts, everything 
came to a standstill. The altar was deserted. The 
spirit of conviction and conversion was gone. The 
congregation began to scatter. Some of the mem- 
bers of the church suggested: " It is now time to stop. 
We have had a good meeting; ten or twelve have been, 
converted and joined the church, and all the indica-. 
tions are that the work is done." The writer an- 
swered: ''Oh, no; the work has net begun good yet. 
The indications are not all right, because we are not 
all right." That night there was another season of 
fruitless toiling. The sermon was hardly heard, so 
indifferent the congregation had become, and none 
of the propositions were accepted. ''Brethren and 
friends," the preacher said, "don't you think it is 
time to pray? Come to the altar all of you who are 
ready to pray God to revive this revival in your own 
hearts and to carry on his work of salvation in our 
midst." The altar was crowded. A few minutes 
were spent in silent searching of hearts, in silent 
confession and silent prayer. Then seven or eight 



REVIVAL PRAYER. 125 

prayed aloud. No one seemed to tire of the long 
altar service, but were rather refreshed by it. The 
preacher again announced an invitation hymn, and 
from the back of the church a man recognized as the 
worst character of the town came down the aisle at a 
breakneck speed, and almost fell as he took a seat on 
the front pew. The preacher sat down by him and 
began to speak to him as he generally does to those 
who turn to Christ, but he could elicit no response. 
Then he said: ''I don't know what to make of you. 
Didn't you come here to have the way of salvation 
explained?" He answered w^ith promptness and 
emphasis, "No." "You came for the prayers of 
the church?" Just as before^ he said, "No." The 
puzzled preacher demanded: "What did you come 
for? Why are you here?" And with much emotion 
he said: " O, Mr. Hubert, just now when you were 
all at the altar praying, I began to pray back yonder 
by the door; and God heard my prayer and saved my 
soul." When this was stated to the congregation some 
wondered, but many found new faith and new courage, 
and_ began to think that the indications were brighter. 
The meeting took a new start that night and contin- 
ued in victorious power till over one hundred were 
blessed in the knowledge and joy of eternal life. The 
membership of that church was more than doubled. 

It is sometimes well to have a signal bell rung in 
protracted meetings, at a suitable hour, to call the 
faithful to prayer. For thirty minutes or an hour 
following, let prayer ascend to God from the stores, 
offices, workshops, fields, and homes of the people, 
for the revival of his work. The answers will come 
like rushing mighty winds. 



126 SEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

A leading agent in the formation of one of our 
American Missionary Societies was asked liow the 
work was started. The reply was: "In prayer." 
''And how has it been sustained?" The agent said: 
"By prayer." "Well, what has contributed most to 
its success?" The answer was: "Prayer." So are 
genuine revivals of religion started, sustained, and 
made successful. Prayer in everything, prayer by 
everybody, prayer everywhere, prayer every moment! 
This means much more than the repetition of phrases 
not felt in tlie heart. Slipshod, halfway efforts will 
not accomx3lisli anything. Prevailing prayers are ear- 
nest and ardent and irrepressible. 

To prevailing prayer there must bo faith, direct 
aim, and the present tense. 

Faith, Go to God confidently, "without doubt- 
ing," as Paul says at 1 Timothy ii. 8. " Let him ask 
in faith," says James i. 6. What more can God say 
or do to encourage us to faith and confidence than he 
has said and done? Too many are like the old woman 
advertised in the chronicles of doubt, who prayed for 
a mountain to be removed, and who said, when she saw 
it in its place: "Just as I expected; I had no idea it 
would budge an inch ! " A professor of religion who 
was bemoaning the uselessness and profitlessness of 
prayer, finally exclaimed: " Why, when I pray for any- 
thing, I just know then it is going against me! " 

God has promised to hear and answer prayer. We 
must not disparage his word or challenge his character. 

The recurd of prevailing prayer would fill more 
volumes than the world could contain. There must 
be something in prayer, when Mary Queen of Scots 
confessed: "I fear the prayers of old John Knox 



REVIVAL PRAYER. 127 

more than I do all tlie armies of Europe." There 
must be something in prayer, when Sir Isaac Newton 
comes down out of his observatory and says: ''I can 
get closer to God on my knees down here than I can 
through my telescope up there." There must be 
something in prayer, when a man who was a Dniver- 
salist remarked of a certain orthodox minister: ''I 
don't mind his preaching at all; but oh, when ho 
prays, I can't stand that, for it makes me feel like all 
creation is coming down on top of me." There must 
be something in prayer, when Moody, whose meat and 
drink for years has been to do his Master's will, says: 
"I have often said that I had rather be able to pray 
like Daniel than preach like Gabriel" Yes; there 
must be something in prayer! There is something in 
prayer! There is everything in prayer! Something 
happens when a prayer of faith goes up to God. 

Satan trembles when he sees 
The weakest saint upon hi:: knees. 

Prayer engages the help of God. '*By prayer we 
lay our hands upon the springs of an agency that 
can diffuse blessings through the world." 

Oar powerful groans he cannot bear, 
Nor stand the violence of prayer, 
Onr prayer omnipotent. 

"Have faith in God." Such faith as the little girl 
had who said to her father as he started to church to 
take part in a meeting called to pray for rain: " Papa, 
you had better take your umbrella, and overshoes, 
and waterproof with you." Such faith as David had 
when he said: "In the morning will I direct my 
prayer unto thee, and will look up." (Psalm v. 3.) 
Look up to see the answer coming, the blessing de- 



128 EEVIVALS OF RIlLIGION. 

scending, the light streaming; look up, confident and 
bold. AY hen you pray for a revival of religion, watch 
and get ready for it. 

Direct Aim. This is all-important. Prayers must 
be specific. There ought to be an aim in all of them. 
We pray for men, but how many of our acquaint- 
ances can we look in the face as the Saviour did 
Peter and say, "I have prayed for theey Somehow 
or other we had rather pray in wholesale generalities 
about the kingdoms of this world all becoming the 
kingdoms of our God and his Christ than exercise 
ourselves in special desire aud supplication for those 
with whom we have daily association. Let the king- 
doms alone during the revival, and pray for your 
children, your neighbors, and the men you meet. In 
a protracted meeting at Tallahassee, Fla., in which 
the writer was assisting the pastor of the Methodist 
church, one of the statehouse officers got up and 
said: '^I was stirred up yesterday as I have never 
been before. I met Brother Perkins on the street, 
and he said to me, 'I and my wife have been praying 
for you and your family.' I have always know^n that 
Brother Perkins was a man of prayer. I have heard 
him often in this church. I know that he has kept 
up family prayer for more than fifty years. And I 
have heard Sister Perkins pray. But none of these 
things touched me and moved me as he did yester- 
day when he said, ^ I and my wife have been praying 
for you and your family.' Since then I have been 
praying more for myself and my family. We have 
an altar of prayer at home now. And I want to 
thank Brother Perkins and his wife, and all others 
who have prayed specially for me and my family." 



REVIVAL PEAYER. 129 

Rolling prayers are like rolling stones. Rambling 
prayers go nowhere, and accomplish nothing. Long 
ago, when our Lord was here among men, and they 
wanted his help, they knew better than to come to 
him with vague, indefinite petitions. He said to the 
blind man: "What w^ilt thou that I should do unto 
thee?" The blind man said: ''Lord, that I might 
receive my sight." The leper cried: ''Lord, if thou 
wait, thou canst make me clean." The woman wept 
before him: "My daughter is possessed of a devil." 
His mother said to him at the wedding feast in Can a 
of. Galilee: "They have no wine." The tempest- 
tossed disciples cry: "Lord, save us; w^e perish." 
Prayer must be just that definite aud circumstantial 
to-day. We must learn our need, the need of our 
loved ones, the need of the church. We must ac- 
knowledge it, and pray God to overtake it. 

Look out for the tense of your prayers! Bishop O. 
P. Fitzgerald says: " Repentance in the present tense; 
faith in the present tense; justification in the pres- 
ent tense; regeneration in the present tense; per- 
fect love in the present teuse." Keep your prayers 
and faith in the present tense; for, during revivals of 
religion, you want present tense answers. A Metho- 
dist preacher crossing the Atlantic Ocean was caught 
in a furious gale. For days it continued, doing great 
damage to the steamship, and it seemed that in spite 
of all that was being done the vessel would go down. 
He says that everybody got to praying. And such 
praying! He had never heard the like of it. It w^as in 
no sense eloquent or oratorical. It w^ould hardly have 
done for a commencement Sunday or a flower show 
service. It was direct, and meant, "Answer nowl" 
9 



130 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

In Georgia there was a poor fellow whose house 
was right in the center of a cyclone's path. He saw 
the boisterous, riotous cloud sweeping down upon 
him. The air was full of flying timbers, and onward 
came the shrieking engine of desolation with merci- 
less and triumphant fury. He was not a praying 
man, but he saw it was time to pray. Down upon 
his knees he fell, and, lifting up his hands, cried: 
" God Almighty, I never did ask you to do anything 
for me before, but if ever you are going to help me, 
now's your chance. Have mercy upon me, and he 
quick about it! " That is the idea. Have mercy upon 
me now! Bless me now! Make haste to help! So 
we ought to pray. A storm that carries remediless 
wreck and eternal death is coming our way; a storm 
that was born in bottomless perdition, and bursting 
through the gates of damnation pursues in howling 
wrath the guilty sons of Adam's fallen race. See 
how it rolls and tosses and flies and plunges, darken- 
ing all the skies, swinging sulphurous torches, belch- 
ing volcanic fires, letting loose whirlwinds, and pour- 
ing out infernal artilleries. 

Hear the awful thunders rolling. 
Loud, and louder o'er your head. 

It comes! it comes! onward it comes! No time now 
for roundabout methods. No time now for orator- 
ical circumlocution. Down upon your knees and 
pray: "O Lord, save us now! send salvation now! 
revive thy work now!" And he will. For in his 
word he reveals himself as a "very present help in 
time of trouble," and promises to help "and that 
right early." (Psalm xlvi. 1, 5.) 



CHAPTEE YI. 

EEYIVAL PREACHING. 

I "REVIVAL preaching aims at immediate results 
-V) when it is what it ought to be. It is written in 
the book of the Acts of the Apostles, xiv. 1, that at 
Iconium Paul and Barnabas " went both together into 
the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great 
multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks be- 
lieved." Some preachers so speak that no one believes. 
It is possible to so preach the gos^oel as to intrench 
men in unbelief and sin; to so preach heaven as to 
drive them to hell. The minister who would be suc- 
cessful in revivals of religion must learn how to 
preach as Paul and Barnabas did at Iconium. He 
must preach with reference to the immediate sub- 
mission of his congregation to the willing power and 
compassionate sovereignty of God. The demand, 
"Choose you this day,'' must give its emphasis to 
every period. 

" We are in danger of laboring as if the ground 
still needed to be sown; while the fields are white 
unto the harvest, and need but a reaper," says- Dr. 
William Arthur, in the "Tongue of Fire." "We are 
in danger of preaching as if the people were either 
all serving God or were all so far away from the 
possibility of being converted soon that they must 
be approached as from a distance, and principles 
laid down and left to work which may bring forth 
fruit after some long time." 

(131) 



132 KEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

Dr. Abel Stevens, writing of the early Methodist 
preachers, says: **They expected to see men awak- 
ened and converted under their sermons, and the 
expectation led to an adaptation of their discourses 
to this end. A sermon that had not some visible ef- 
fect was never satisfactory, whatever might be the 
hope of its future results. It was usual for them to 
end the discourse with a home-directed and over- 
whelming application, and often to follow it immedi- 
ately with exercises of prayer, that they might gather 
up the shaken fruit on the spot. Hence revivals 
flamed along their extended circuits." 

Bishop G. r. Pierce testifies: "In my early boy- 
hood I was struck with the fact that no Methodist 
preacher — old, young, educated, illiterate, on Sunday, 
every day, everywhere — ever preached, no matter 
what the text, without an appeal to sinners: Bepent, 
or you will x^erish; believe, or you will be damned.. 
When we were young, brethren, this was the burden 
of our preaching. We had good times — convictions, 
and converts, and revivals." This writer has been 
much impressed with the faithfulness of the minis- 
ters of the Church of the Disciples, who insist upon 
and evidently expect their congregations to yield to 
the views of that denomination, and especially its 
doctrine of immersion for the remission of sins. 
Their zeal and faith are worthy of a better system 
of theology, and they may well stir us up who have 
the better system. The remarkable growth of their 
church is due to no other circumstance. 

A young minister of the gospel approached Spur- 
geon and said: "I should like to ask you a personal 
question." "Well, what is it?" "I am a minister 



REVIVAL PREACHING. 133 

of Christ, and I have been preaching for several 
years, but I liave not had much fruit to my preacli- 
ing. Yet, I believe I preach the truth in the right 
spirit, but the Lord does not give me souls." Spur- 
geon answered: '' Well, you do not expect that every 
time you preach the gospel the Holy Ghost is com- 
ing down upon the people to turn some to Christ, do 
you?" " Why, of course not." "Well, that is just 
what is the matter. According to your faith, be it 
unto you." 

We find Caughey saying at one place: "I have 
drawn the sword and thrown away the scabbard. 
Let jesters and speculators have their say; that 
sword shall make havoc, by the power of the Holy 
Ghost, among the King's enemies; and before I 
leave this chapel, I hope to be able to point to a 
great cloud of witnesses— a host of new converts — 
and say, 'Behold the fruits of my ministry!'" At 
the great revival of religion in Indianapolis which 
he conducted, Thomas Harrison announced, the sec- 
ond day after the meeting began: ''There will be a 
thousand and upward conversions, and they will come 
from all ranks of society." Frequently he says at the 
opening of a service: "There will be no preaching 
at this service. We w^ant to see sinners converted. 
That is wdiat we are here for. Sing something, an 
invitation hymn. Jesus is here to save. Hear him 
calling, 'Come unto me.' Come, sinner, come; Jesus 
is calling you! Come now! " Those who are familiar 
with the career of this evangelist do not need to be 
told how these short appeals are answered in crowded 
altars and striking conversions. Or, he says: "I 
must not exhort too long, for there are sinners here 



134 REVIVALS OF IIELIGION. 

who want to be saved, and I must give them oppor- 
tunity. The whole drift of my labors is to bring 
souls to Christ; and scores will yield to-night." 

It is asked: "Is it reasonable and scriptural to 
labor for and expect immediate results?" ^Nothing 
else is reasonable; nothing else is scriptural. ''My 
word that goeth forth out of my mouth shall not re- 
turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which 
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto 1 
sent it." (Isaiah Iv. 11.) " The weapons of our war- 
fare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the 
pulling down of strongholds." (2 Corinthians x. 4.) 
" Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also 
in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assur- 
ance." (1 Thessalonians i. 5.) ''Behold, now is the 
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 
(2 Corinthians vi. 2.) 

No man is authorized to speak in God's name ex- 
cept to demand immediate surrender, and except with 
invincible confidence in the gospel of the Lord Jesus 
Christ as the power of God unto the salvation of all 
who believe. Do the invitations and warnings of the 
Bible indicate that sinners must be given time to re- 
flect and consider what they will do with God's offers 
of grace? While they are reflecting and consider- 
ing, death may come and hand them down through 
the grave into hell. When the Holy Spirit reproves 
*' of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment," is it 
with the accompanying impression that by and by 
the impenitent ought to give up sin and accept the 
Saviour? Gospel sermons must be and are elabo- 
rations of the gracious invitation: "Come; for all 
things are now ready." (Luke xiv. 17.) That means 



BEVIVAL PliEACHING. 135 

now; without delay. So the prophets of old cried, 
and so the apostles besought. The latter were not 
long in turning the world upside down, and the most 
timid of the former excited Nineveh to repentance, 
and calling upon God. 

There is a familiar but ever impressive story of 
two preachers ''whose method and whose success in 
preaching were the antipodes of each other," and 
who, being thrown together, engaged in conversation 
on that subject. The unsuccessful brother alluded 
to the vast number of converts which followed the 
efforts of his friend, and the absence of such results 
in his own ministry, and asked how it could be ex- 
plained. His friend answered: ''Our objects in 
13reaching, my dear brother, are quite different. I 
aim at the immediate conversion of sinners to God; 
but you, it would seem, at nothing of the kind. How 
can we expect similar effects, when-w^e aim at results 
so widely different?" He was pleased to see his 
friend acknowledging what he said, and continued: 
''Here is one of my sermons; preach it to your con- 
gregation next Sunday, and see what wall happen." 
The sermon w^as accepted, and the follov/ing Sunday 
the minister got up to preach it. He had not gone 
far wdth the delivery of the sermon before the people 
began to be moved. Sinners became alarmed and 
wept aloud, and all the congregation was impressed. 
The preacher got embarrassed and amazed, and as 
soon as he could he brought the service to an end. 
But that was not the end of the matter with the peo- 
ple. They were thoroughly aroused, and came up to 
the pulpit asking, "What must we do to be saved?" 
The preacher, who was very unhappy on account of 



136 KEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

the mischief that he thought he had done, hastened 
to apologize: " Oli, I am so sorry if I have hurt your 
feelings. I am sure I did not mean to. It was 
wholly unintentional!" A minister with such aims 
and intentions, or rather lack of aims and intentions, 
win souls? or be of use in a revival of religion? The 
dev^il is willing enough for preachers of that stamp 
to be multiplied without number. 

'^But," some one protests, "my gifts are not of the 
direct, emphatic, incisive character. My tempera- 
mental aptitudes are of the quiet, easy, and patient 
sort." What then? Then let your gifts go! Mortify 
your temperamental aptitudes! crucify them! What 
are they worth if they cannot be used in warning the 
impenitent, destroying the vain hopes of sinners, and 
savingly directing the awakened to the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sin of the world? "Tempera- 
mental aptitudes! " What are you but a man? Grace 
can conquer your aptitudes, supply you with un- 
dreamed-of zeal, wing your tongue with gospel per- 
suasion, and give you the victory in everything and 
everywhere. 

The preacher in a revival of religion must vex his 
soul till results appear. He must tax every power, 
every faculty, every resource to have immediate re- 
sults. He must not spare himself, but spend and be 
spent. Bishop Pierce said, in a Conference sermon: 
"You are not lawyers to put up with your fee though 
you lose your cause, but ministers of the Lord Jesus, 
who ought to feel that there can be, must be, no offset, 
no alleviation or apoloary for failure." Eichard Bax- 
ter said: '' He never had the right ends of a preacher 
who is indifferent whether he obtain them', and is not 



REVIVAL PKEACHING. 137 

grieved when lie misseth them, and rejoiceth when he 
can see the desired result." 

Desire immediate results, aim at immediate results, 
believe God for immediate results. " Whatever may 
be your talent, rouse yourself, O man of God, to a 
renewed and soul-stirring consciousness of your high 
calling. If you have brilliant endowments, remem- 
ber that their direct appropriation to the single ulti- 
mate puri^ose of your office will only exalt and im- 
prove them. If your gifts are small, remember that 
your graces and energy need not be so. Open your 
Bible and select subjects which will lead men direct- 
ly to God. Go into the pulpit expecting, intensely 
praying, that souls may be rescued under the dis- 
course of the hour; go into the prayer meeting urg- 
ing the people to the cross; go forth into the streets, 
not to idle away time with colloquial commonplaces 
or twaddling joies, but, like Paul, to * warn ' the peo- 
ple *from house to house with tears.' Stand out on 
the arena of common life armed with the directest 
truths of the gospel, and apply them uncompromis- 
ingly to every evil, every question. Act thus, and 
heaven and earth shall pass away rather than the 
word of God fail in your hands." 

The sermon that Peter preached at Jerusalem on 
the day of Pentecost, followed by results so remark- 
able, is a model revival sermon. What that sermon 
was, all our revival sermons should be. No one can 
read the sermon and fail to see that Peter was aim- 
ing at an immediate result. 

Peter's sermon was fnJI of Scripture and teas scrip- 
ttcraL There are five hundred and thirty-one words 
in the sermon, as it is reported by Luke. Of these 



138 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

nearly one-half, two hundred and eighteen, are quot- 
ed from the Scriptures; ninety-one refer to the Scrip- 
tures; and all the rest are animated by the spirit of 
the Scriptures. 

The Scriptures carry evidences sufficient to satisfy 
every mind. If it were otherwise, men would be ex- 
cusable for rejecting the gospel. There is yet to be 
reported the first instance of one putting himself 
under the influence of the word of God who failed 
to prove its teaching all divine. Conviction follows, 
both naturally and supernaturally. This is the char- 
iot in which the Holy Ghost most delights to ride, 
for it is his own chariot. If there should be discov- 
ered one honest inquirer to whom the word of God 
were an insufficient agency of conviction and conver- 
sion, the circumstance would be miraculous, and the 
Almighty would vouchsafe him a special revelation 
for the resolution of his doubts and the enkindling 
of his faith. 

A dying man said to a friend who was trying to 
comfort him: "Speak to me now in Scripture lan- 
guage alone; I know I can trust the word of God; 
but when they are the words of a man, it costs me an 
eff'ort to think whether I may trust them." Some 
such demand our revival congregations make of 
preachers. They want to know what God thinks of 
them and their need. They want to know what God 
has said about them and their duty. They want to 
know Avhat God has promised them, and how they 
may receive it. He who goes to i3erishing sinners in 
the name of God ought to have a " Thus saith the 
Lord" for all he teaches and' for all he demands. 
To all, as well as to Jonah, God says: "Preach the 



REVIVAL PKEACHING. 139 

preaching that I bid thee." (Jonah iii. 2.) To all 
the Holy Spirit says: ^'Preach the word!" (2 Tim- 
othy iv. 2.) "Let us nse the word of God in its 
naked simplicity, its convincing might, its arous- 
ing energy; in its enlightening power, in its rugged 
strength, in its comforting grace, in its assuring 
knowledge, in its peaceful joy, in its Christ-honoring 
theme, its God-glorifying teaching, and its Spirit- 
giving utterance." 

Pete)''s sermon nris full of Clirist, He employs 
forty nouns and fourteen pronouns in referring to 
the Saviour. The name ^' Jesus" is used three 
times: "Jesus of Nazareth," "this Jesus," "that 
same Jesus." Peter as well as Paul was determined 
to have no other theme "save. Jesus Christ and him 
crucified." 

No revivalist will fail who makes "Jesus Christ 
and him crucified" his theme. The truth as it is in 
him answers all the skepticism of the world, over- 
takes impenitence, and leads into the peace that 
passeth all understanding, and unto the holiness 
without which no man shall see the Lord. 

"What to do with Jesus is the problem of atheism. 
How to account for him is the sore amazement of in- 
fidels. Men who can account for the universe with- 
out a Deity, cannot account for the history of the 
past nineteen hundred years without confessing that 
Jesus Christ, his words, and his influence are su- 
pernatural; nor for his career without confessing 
that in him dwelt a fullness of life not common to 
man. 

It is a Saviour that the world consciously needs. 
The world has that need supplied in Jesus of Naza- 



140 KEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

reth. It is on this account that the most successful 
evangelists exhort: ''i3ehold the Lamb of God." 

The preaching of Jesus Christ awakens the im- 
pel] itent, overcomes hardness of heart and cherished 
love of sin. The testimony that excites to evangel- 
ical repentance is the testimony of Jesus Christ and 
liim crucified. It is a common impression that convic- 
tion must be produced by preaching the law. That 
is the means generally employed to awaken careless 
and hardened sinners. But it is the less powerful 
means. Tiie most awakening truth that sinners ever 
heard is that ''God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish but have everlasting life." 
Many a congregation that long resisted the thunders 
and voices that made Sinai awful has wept from bro- 
ken and contrite hearts at the place called Calvary. 

Robert Murray McCheyne tells us of an occasion 
when the minister was speaking w4th much tender- 
ness on the words, *'IIe is altogether lovely;" and 
every sentence of the sermon was responded to by 
cries of bitterest agony. 

The preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified 
is necessary to the salvation of our hearers. "Neither 
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other 
name under heaven given among men, whereby we 
must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) "I am the way, the 
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, 
but by me." (John xiv. 6.) 

All the mercy of God, the fullness of his grace, 
the sum of his love, is in Jesus Christ. He is the 
Father's provision for the salvation of the whole 
world. The Bible nowhere teaches that men will 



REVIVAL PREACHING. 141 

be saved because God is pitiful or because lie loves 
them. The truth of the Bible is that God so loved 
this rebellious world of ours as to have his only be- 
gotten Son take the guilty sinner's place and taste 
death for every man, that through him all might es- 
cape. It matters not how great a sinner any man 
may have been, it matters not what enormous and 
hideous sins he may have committed, it matters not 
how long he may have reveled in sins, it matters not 
what have been the results of his sinning, the min- 
ister of Jesus Christ has good tidings of great joy 
even for the worst of the worst. 

Through all depths of sin and loss 
Drops the plummet of the cross; 
Never yet abyss was found 
Deeper than the cross can sound. 

Whitefield used to preach that God especially 
loved to save "the devil's castaways;" and in Row- 
land Hill's preaching he frequently applied the 
couplet: 

Come naked, come filthy, come ragged, come poor, 
Come wretched, come dirty, come just as you are. 

Pastors, evangelists, and missionaries all tell us 
that more people refer to John iii. 16 as the passage 
of Scripture w^aich helped them into the kingdom 
than refer to any other score of texts. It is generally 
the first text to arrest the attention of the heathen. 
Nor do they or any ever tire of that story of love. 

"'By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that 
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, 
lest any man should boast.' This blessed doctrine 
of a salvation free for all, and, consequently, can nei- 
ther be merited nor monopolized by any, is the great 



142 REVIVALS OF RELIGION, 

central luminary in the firmament of Protestantism. 
No wonder that it shook the priest-ridden world like 
an earthquake, when, from being so long lost to it, 
it was discovered by Luther, apparently accidentally. 
It will yet shake the heads of pseudo churches from 
their thrones, and popes from their chairs. It will 
shake the earth — aye, and heaven too! It will shake 
the earth till it sift out its errors, and then make 
eternity's long aisles tremulous to the song of its tri- 
umphs, and the far-off newborn worlds to clap their 
hands to the greetings of the spreading music." 

The first Moravian missionaries sent to Greenland 
decided to withhold the story of the crucifixion until 
they had imparted what they considered was prepar- 
atory instruction. They did not think it wise to j^reach 
the cross at the first, lest its offense W'reck their plans 
for the salvation of the island. Those missiona- 
ries were abundant in labors. They made God's sov- 
ereignty and his gooduess the themes of eloquent 
appeals. They organized classes in Bible study, be- 
ing careful what lessons they read those who came. 
Of the Saviour they had many a wonder to relate — 
his gracious speech, his compassionate miracles, his 
holy life, his ascension unto glory from Olivet; but 
not one word of his rejection by men, nor of the 
agony in Gethsemane, nor of the sufferings under 
Pontius Pilate, nor of his cross, his death, his burial. 
The missionaries failed — failed most completely. 
They made no converts. Greenland was as far away 
from God as when they came. And they ought to 
have failed! For if Christ be not preached suffering 
and dying for us; lifted upon the cross and pierced 
there — there is no gospel, no redemption, no salva- 



KEVIVAL PREACHING. 143 

tion! "Though an angel from heaven preach any 
other gospel unto you, let him be accursed." (Gala- 
tians i. 8,) There is nothing in the world — its wis- 
doms, its philosophies, its powers, its moralities, its 
beauties, saving; there is nothing even in the king- 
dom of heaven saving but the sacrificial death of 
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Exceeding great 
and precious are the promises of the Father, beyond 
all compare the excellence of the law of the Lord, 
thrilling indeed the words of the Teacher Divine; but 

For our pardon, this our plea, 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

The blood of Jesus, then, be our theme! Christ and 
him crucified be our gospel and our message! What 
else could we want? What story is as beautiful as 
the old, old story of Jesus and his love ? What gos- 
pel is as satisfactory as that one that "he was 
wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our 
iniquities? " All else in our preaching, and all else in 
our believing, and all else in our living, will perish 
but the Christ crucified that is in it. Everything 
else wears out. The eloquence of Chrysostom, the 
logic of Jonathan Edwards, the abounding richness 
of Jeremy Taylor, the novelties and sensationalisms 
of modern pulpiteers — all these, how^ever mucli they 
may charm for awhile, become as old songs that pall 
upon the ear; but that the Son of Man is come to 
Feek and to save that which was lost; that God sent 
not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
that the world through him might live; that Christ 
must needs have suffered and risen again from the 
dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you 
is Christ; this is, from generation to generation, as 



144 EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

fresh and fragrant as Lebanon; nor will it cease to 
send forth its consolations and shed abroad its 
powers, 

Till all the ransomed church of God 
Is saved to sin no more ! 

Peter's sermon icas personal. His hearers were left 
in no doubt as to who was meant. So our Master 
preached. We read at Matthew xxi. 45: ''When the 
chief priests and Phax^isees had heard his parables, 
they perceived that he spake of them." No man 
ever got spiritual help from a sermoix except as he 
was made to feel that he w^as the preacher's target. 
The fifty-first Psalm did not burst from David's heart 
until Nathan charged him directly and bravely, " Thou 
art the man!" The Wesleys determined that those 
to whom they preached should not fail to understand 
that they were meant when the sermon sounded. In 
one of his sermons, Charles Wesley appeals: ''If I 
speak to one of you more than another, it is to thee, 
who thinkest thyself unconcerned in this exhorta- 
tion. ' I have a message from God unto thee.'' Thou 
art fast asleep; tliou art fast asleep in the devil's arras, 
on the blank of the pit, in the jaws of everlasting 
death." 

They call it sensationalism, and reprobate it as such, 
when a preacher tells the people of their sins. He is 
safe as long as he confines his denunciations of wick- 
edness to those phases of it the people " have no 
mind to," and will likely be applauded for a week 
after he has shouted himself hoarse over those ex- 
pressions of depravity which characterized the Hit- 
tites and Perizzites and Amorites of old; but it is 
reckoned the grossest sort of vulgarism and the rank- 



REVIVAL PREACHING. 145 

est oflfense for him to refer never so faintly to tlioso 
types of iniquity which are peopling hell with souls 
from the community in which he lives. Men demand 
creeds to suit their deeds. Herod thought John 
entirely too " rough " when he told him it was not 
right to have his brother's wife; and the scribes and 
Pharisees thought the theology of our Lord altogeth- 
er too idealistic and farfetched. Neither James, Pe- 
ter, nor Paul are celebrated as "pojjular preachers." 
The Master never contemplated popularity as one of 
the results of a man's preaching the gospel. He has 
not left us one word which tells us what to do when 
we are complimented for our '' lovely sermons" and 
"beautiful manners." When he looked down into 
these years of ours, and saw those who would not 
shun to declare the whole of the counsel of God, 
saw those who would preach the word rather than 
the newspapers and the cross rather than the wisdom 
of the world, he left word what they should do when 
they were "brought before governors and kings for 
his sake," and when synagogues cast them out, and 
when cities refuse to receive them, and even when 
kinsfolk and friends cause them to be put to death, 
Revival preaching is telling the people in unmis- 
takable terms what they must do to be saved. The 
sermon must fit and hit. A preacher in Maine whose 
parishioners had been stealing logs, and whose ways 
he had sought in vain to amend with a series of ser- 
mons on the eighth commandment, woke them up 
one day when he opened his sermon as follows: 
"Dearly beloved brethren, my text this morning 
is, ^Thou shalt not steal — logs''' Good portraits 
look at you; so do good sermons. They find you 
10 



146 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

and cannot be escaped. They are like detectives: 
they search out, and expose, and provoke to confes- 
sion. Often the results of this character surprise the 
preacher as much as anyone else. A minister, after 
describiiJg a certain character, in a sermon, paused, 
and said: "If I was omniscient, I could call out by 
name the very persons that answer this description." 
Immediately a man in the congregation cried out, 
"Name me!" and he seemed almost panic-stricken. 
He said he had no idea of speaking out, but was so 
perfectly described by the preacher that he thought 
his name was coming next. Daniel Webster said: " If 
ministers would preach more to individuals and less 
to crowds, there Avould not be so much complaint of 
the decline of the true religion. I want my pastor 
to come to me, in the spirit of the gospel, saying: 
^ You are mortal; your probation is brief; your work 
must be done speedily. You are immortal too; you 
are hastening to the bar of God; the Judge even now 
standeth at the door! ' When I am thus admonished, 
I have no disposition either to muse or to sleep." 

A sermon that does not make those who hear it 
know and feel that they are the preacher's target, and 
must act now, is the merriment of hell and the dis- 
tress of heaven. Whatever may be its other merits, 
as a sermon it is a failure, and its preacher a cum- 
berer of the ground. 

Over a hundred years ago, when God, in his in- 
finite mercy, began to raise up associates for the 
Wesleys in the great revival of religion they were 
directing, more than anything else those devoted 
servants of Christ Jesus feared exercises that were 
merely formal and professional, A term they fre- 



REVIVAL PKEACHING. 147 

quently applied to their public addresses instances 
this godly fear. They would not speak of what they 
did as ''preaching." They would not call their ap- 
peals and exhortations "sermons." Those two terms, 
''preaching" and "sermons," were too dignified to be 
used in connection with their efforts. Too digni- 
fied and too slow! They had for the multitudes that 
met them in public places, not a sermon, but an 
alarm, and they were zealously affected, not to de- 
liver it, but to sound it! To make it ring like a fire 
bell's weird and clanging dissonance; to make it call 
like a drum's beat for battle; to make it peal like the 
shrill blast of a watchman's trumpet, when lurking 
danger is discovered. '^ Sounding the alarm!'' That 
was their zeal. The term coimmends itself. It grows 
on acquaintance. While not found in the Scriptures, 
it is eminently scriptural. It suggests what Paul 
did when he tells us: "Knowing the terrors of the 
Lord, I persuade men." It recalls the turbulent 
eloquence of John, crying, " Now is the ax laid unto 
the root of the trees!" It reminds us of Jonah 
weeping and testifying, "Yet forty days and Nin- 
eveh shall be destroyed!" It is brother to the dis- 
tress to which David says he gave himself on account 
of the wickedness and unbelief of his generation, 
and to the agony of the prophet Jeremiah: "I am 
pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise 
in me; I cannot hold my peace." Men might sneer 
at them, and ridicule their irregular zeal, and expose 
tbeir "out of season " enthusiasm to contempt; might 
call them fanatics, alarmists, sensationalists, and all 
that, it mattered nothing; for they read in the Bible, 
"He that believeth not is condemned already;" and, 



148 EEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

" There is but one God, and one mediator between 
God and men, the man Clirist Jesus; " and, " It shall 
come to pass that every soul, which will not hear 
that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the 
people;" and they read, and verified it as they read 
it, that men were asleep in sin, or glorying in their 
heaven-defrauding recklessness, or were victims of 
the demon of insensibility, and therefore knew that if 
ever they were arrested and awakened there was ab- 
solute necessity for something else besides a cream- 
cheese theology done up in dainty sermonettes and 
amiable conventionalities. So they wept and plead- 
ed and shouted and stormed till they made the deaf 
hear and the dead feel. 

"If we wish to please," said Lord Chesterfield, 
who perhaps knew the world as thoroughly as any 
man who ever lived in it, "you must make men 
pleased with themselves; they will then be pleased 
with you." But the gospel cannot make men pleased 
with themselves. Eternal Wisdom designed that 
it should utterly destroy men's pleasure in them- 
selves and alarm them on account of what they are, 
and aw^ake tbem to utmost effort to escape deserved 
punishment and lay hold upon eternal life. Preach- 
ers cannot address with benedictions and felicitations 
those who reject the only light that shines, the only 
mercy that is offered, the only salvation that is pro- 
vided. Nor can they for a moment think of courting 
worldly applause or any temporal gain, by proposing 
exquisite conceits to those who are about to be over- 
taken by tempests of wrath. Preachers are charged 
with proclaiming and enforcing not what will make 
them acceptable and popular preachers, but what 



KEVIVAL PKEACHJNG. 149 

will make their hearers broken-hearted penitents 
and earnest-minded Christians. It is well enough 
to be liberal and aflfable, but, as is well said, " no one 
need be more so than the Lord." He preached about 
a fire that was never quenched, of a worm that never 
died, of the eternity of punishment in the lake of fire, 
and of one soul there that begged in vain tor a sin- 
gle drop of water. It is well to be gentle and chari- 
table, but there is no degree of these virtues at which 
a minister of Jesus Christ is absolved from obliga- 
tion to declare the whole of the counsel of God, with- 
out modification and without qualification. That is 
not charity which induces a minister to contradict 
doctrines that are plainly read in the Bible or con- 
fuse moral and spiritual distinctions which inevitably 
ultimate in eternal contraries. This writer has be- 
moaned his failure to so preach the gospel as to prick 
men to the heart more than any lack of worldly gain 
and popularity; and he would confess how he some- 
times weeps and despairs, like that Athenian painter 
of old, who was bending over the canvas on which 
his " Prometheus " was receiving the final touches 
of the brush, and who exclaimed as he gazed upon 
his expiring human model: ^' Oh, that I could paint 
a dying groan!''' But lines nor colors nor lights 
nor shadows could reproduce on canvas the idea of 
a groan. So has the writer cried: "Oh, that I could 
paint eternity! Oh, that I could make real to my con- 
gregation what a fearful thing it is to reject the love 
of God, to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him 
to an open shame! Oh, that I could reproduce to my 
hearers the wail of those who die trusting in some- 
thing else than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and 



150 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

who, forever scourged of conscience and abhorred of 
God, wander through infinitudes of darkness!" In 
a sermon Christmas Evans once repeated the word 
" Eternity " thirty times consecutively, and the effect 
is said to have been overwhelming. During the de- 
livery of Jonathan Edwards's sermon on the text, 
" Their feet shall slide in due time " (Deuteronomy 
xxxii. 35), his subject being, ^'Sinners in the Hands 
of an Angry God," the people became so alarmed for 
themselves that many swung on to the pillars of the 
church lest they should slip away into bottomless 
and endless hell. On several occasions, when White- 
field lifted up his hands and cried, " Oh, the love of 
God, the love of God, the love of God!" hundreds 
fell to the ground, prostrated and undone by the con- 
sciousness of having sinned against that love, and 
others leaped and sang and shouted as they felt it shed 
abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. 

Rowland Hill says this: *'I once saw a gravel pit 
fall in and bury three human beings alive. I shouted 
so loud for help that I was heard at the distance of 
a mile. Help came and rescued two of the sufferers. 
No one called me an enthusiast then; but when I see 
eternal destruction ready to come on poor sinners, 
and about to entomb them in an eternal mass of woe, 
and call aloud on them to escape, I am called an en- 
thusiast." That was gospel advice which Mrs. Car- 
lyle gave an old pupil of her husband's who had just 
been licensed to preach. She said: ''Now, William, 
don't go about seeking for a church, but go out into 
highways and hedges, and preach aivay UJce a house 
on fire,'' 

When we think of the great God who has made us 



REVIVAL PLEACHING. 151 

his messengers, the wonderful character of the mes- 
sage we bear, the woeful need of the people to whom 
we are sent, the deceitf ulness and hardness (>f the hu- 
man heart, the varied charms with which temptation 
invests sin, the rapid appioach of death, and tiie day 
of judgment beyond, we must be constrained to exer- 
cise all our sense, all our passion, all our strength, 
to "so preach" the word, "Jesus Christ and him 
crucified," as to fully persuade everyone, that every 
mouth may be stopped, and all men become guilty 
before God, cease from works to establish their own 
righteousness, and submit themselves unto Him who 
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone 
that believeth. 



CHAPTER VII, 

EEYIVAL SEEYICES. 

PEEACHING is the grand means chosen and or- 
dained of God unto the salvation of souls. Let 
it once for all be understood that the chief contest 
with the powers of unbelief and sin is when the 
word is preached. Nothing can take the place of the 
preaching service. That is the chief and central serv- 
ice about which our heartiest prayers and strongest 
faith should rally. But other services may prepare 
for the preaching service, or gather up its fruit. 
They are supplementary; nor can they be neglected 
without great loss to the revival. 

The first of these which the writer would recom- 
mend is the Leaders' Meeting. The pastor or pas- 
tors who are interested in the revival, the evangelist 
or visiting brother who is in charge, together with 
those of the church who work at the altar, or in the con- 
gregation, or on the street, ought to meet at the ear- 
liest possible morning hour for conference and prayer. 
The organist and leader in song ought to be present. 
The meeting secures many desirable results. It keeps 
the workers "in touch" with each other. It fosters 
the spirit of sympathy. It cultivates brotherly love, 
and minimizes the danger of jealousy and misunder- 
standing. The "comparison of notes" by the work- 
ers develops much that is interesting and helpful in 
the future progress of the work. Directly and in- 
directly the revivalist has suggested to him what to 
(152) 



KEYIYAL SERVICES. 153 

preach and how to preach. He learns from his fel- 
low-workers the minds of those who compose his con- 
gregations. He will see the importance of discussing 
themes he had not thought of presenting in that 
meeting. He finds out what the revival is accomplish- 
ing—how much, how little. 

This meeting is entirely informal. No one leads. 
It is just a coming together of the laborers to consult 
and plan and pray. Suggestions are made: to the 
revivalist, to the pastor, to the singers, to others. 
Methods of success are discussed. Hindrances and 
antagonisms are also discussed. What to do next is 
agreed upon, so that there may be perfect unanimity 
of mind and heart. This meeting gives the leader a 
chance to get acquainted with his helpers; he learns 
to know them and their work, and how to use them to 
best advantage. The helpers, too, are benefited. It 
is a recognition to wdiich they are entitled. They 
work, they share the responsibility of making the re- 
vival a success, and certainly they ought to be taken 
into the freest and fullest confidence and consulta- 
tion. The prayers of the workers for each other and 
for the work in wdiich they are engaged is a becoming 
exercise. It is easy to forget ourselves in our solici- 
tude for others. We are charged: " Take heed there- 
fore unto yourselves." ("Acts xx. 28.) The leaders' 
meeting is not a time for jest and wit, nor for self- 
congratulations and offerings of flattery. They are 
to come together in these meetings to learn all they 
can about each other and from each other, and to 
make common prayer for grace, for direction, and for 
power from on high. The watchmen of Zion who 
give alarm must keep their own souls alert. Ac- 



154 REVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

knowledging their entire dependence upon the gospel 
they proclaim to others, they must seek and have in 
it that abiding which will be unto them wisdom, 
strength, and joy. 

Prayer and Praise Services. Those that fear the 
Lord and think upon his name have always loved to 
meet together in prayer and praise. On the subject 
of revival prayer the writer has nothing to suggest 
at this place. On the place and power of public 
praise and testimony some consideration may prop- 
erly be offered. 

Praise is due God, He delights in it. How often 
are we commanded to " praise the Lord," to " rejoice 
in the Lord," and to "be glad" in him. He says 
that " praise is comely." 

Some excuse themselves from this exercise, saying: 
*'I don't feel like it." They have subjected them- 
selves to the notion that they need not engage in this 
praise of the Lord unless they have a certain feeling 
that impels them. It is indeed a silly and mischie- 
vous doctrine and one to be " trampled under foot," 
that "we are not to do good unless our hearts be 
free to it." David expresses the only safe determina- 
tion in this language: ''I will bless the Lord at all 
times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth." 
(Psalm xxxiv. 1.) We cannot control our feelings. 
They will vary. But we can control our lips and 
tongues, and we ought to make them glorify God 
and show forth his grace, whenever that exercise will 
contribute to the advancement of his kingdom. 

"Te shall be witnesses unto me," said the Saviour. 
That was not an awkward nor overdrawn figure the 
brother used who said that Jesus was on trial before 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 155 

the world, the case already called, and witnesses 
summoned; but some of these witnesses refuse to 
testify, others do so in a very ambiguous manner, 
and others with hesitation and self-contradictions. 
He may lose his case, because his witnesses fail him. 

In revivals of religion, praise ought to abound. If 
" there is joy in the presence of the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth," ought we not to re- 
joice when we see revivals going on, building up the 
church and rescuing the lost? Truly, ''it is a good 
thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing prais- 
es unto thy name, O Most High." (Psalm xcii. 1.) 
"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his 
courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his 
name." (Psalm c. 4.) 

It is due the world to witness to the soul-satisfying 
joys of religion. Paul put his experience into all his 
epistles. The first Methodist and Baptist preachers 
Lad a good deal of experience in all their sermons. 
Eev. T. O. Summers, D.D., LL.D., who certainly can- 
not be accused of underestimating the value of scien- 
tific theology, says: "Men, especially the masses of 
society, are less affected with systematic dogma and 
close argumentation than they are with the living 
embodiment of the great principles recommended 
and enforced upon their attention." An ounce of ex- 
perience is worth many tons of theories. One heart- 
felt recital of a soul's turning to God and receiving 
of mercy is more valuable in a revival, more helpful 
to the penitent, more convincing to the impenitent 
than a college-weight of syllogisms, metaphysics, 
ornate apologetics, or what not. 

After a recent session of the Florida Annual Con- 



156 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

ference, a number of men at the city which enter- 
tained the body were discussiug the addresses, 
speeches, and sermons delivered, in their company 
was a man who had long professed atheism, a dis- 
tinguished lawyer. He was the last to express him- 
self, and did so only when asked to. He said: "I do 
not feel that I am competent to join you in this dis- 
cussion. I can only speak from my standpoint. I 
was at every service, from the first to the last, and 
heard everything. The Methodist Church is too big 
a thing for any man to ignore, and I arranged my 
business so I could take in the whole Conference. I 
am glad I did, for I saw and heard much that I can 
never forget. But what impressed me most and car- 
ried the most persuasion to my mind was not a ser- 
mon, nor a speech. It was at the Conference love 
feast, Sunday morning. I went to that too. A Mr. 
Neal got up to tell what Jesus Christ was to him. 
The man looked ready for his coffin, his clothes 
looked ready for the ragman; although superannua- 
ted, he was a young man and had two little children. 
The failure in his health came right when he prom- 
ised the best service to the church; and there he was 
in that pitiable condition, strong in the Lord, re- 
joicing with a joy exceeding great and full of glory, 
and making boast of what Jesus Christ was to him. 
It affected me, and affects me still, and makes me 
think that a religion that can so sustain a man is 
worth everything." Instances of this character are 
not rare. It was before the voice of praise that Jer- 
icho fell. 

It is due our souls to let them tell their joys. Elihu 
said to Job: ''I am full of matter, the spirit within 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 157 

me constrainetli me." It is common to hear at praise 
and experience meetings: "I did not mean to say 
anything, but my heart is so full I cannot keep silent; 
I must speak;" and we hear others confessing, ''I did 
not speak, and I am afraid I resisted the Spirit." In 
worldly matters men never get tired of telling what 
they have done or seen or made or gained. Ncr do 
they get tired in spiritual matters, when they have 
anything to talk about. Even in heaven, where angel 
choirs sing, the mercy of God unto men is voiced in 
anthems and songs that cannot be restrained, but 
sweep in storms and temj)ests of rapture and praise 
through mansions peopled with those who washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. 

There are over five hundred texts of Scripture which 
enjoin the public owning of God, the confession of 
the Lord Jesus Christ before men, and praise for sal- 
vation. God will own the people as his people who 
own him as their God. He will keep them, and pros- 
per them, and be their help in time of trouble. 

Introductory Services. The opening exercises of 
the preaching service ought to be varied. These in- 
troductory exercises can be made very helpful. They 
are especially to wake up the people and prepare 
them for the following service. Many come to church 
with preoccupied minds and estranged hearts; some 
come just to scoff and find fault; others come with- 
out knowing why. Something ought to be done or 
said, at the first of the meeting, to catch the attention 
of these and enlist their interest. To speak to some 
hearers is like scattering seed on stony ground. To 
preach to those whose hearts have been opened is 



158 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

to cast seed into plowed ground, where there is the 
certainty of a precious liarvest. 

The introductory service may be a prayer service, 
a testimony and praise service, or a desire service. 
It may be a song service. Yery much is gj,ined 
when the people are exercised in sacred song. Song 
is about one-half of Harrison's services, and his 
biographer says that this is one of the secrets of his 
success. The introductory service may be varied 
ad infinitum. The point is to make it prepare for the 
service it preludes. This writer was junior preacher 
to Rev. T. W. Barker, of the Kentucky Conference, 
some years ago. There were about two counties in 
the -circuit. The plan of the work embraced, with 
two. or three strong churches, some that were the 
reverse of strong and some that existed only in the 
daring heart of the senior preacher. The summer 
was consecrated to the work of evangelism. Showers 
of blessing fell everywhere, and two churches were 
organized which have exercised wide influence. The 
introductory service through these meetings included 
a short exhortation, generally delivered by the writer, 
for Brother Barker did nearly all the preaching. The 
people were reminded of the great benefits vouchsafed 
them in the gospel and urged to attend upon the 
w^ord about to be preached with all readiness of mind 
and heart; to hear a dying man as dying men should, 
and with reference to the account they would have 
to give for what and how they heard. Circumstances 
will direct as to the best course to pursue. 

Introductory services must not get stereotyped, or 
they will lose their influence. Nor must anything be 
employed simply as a contrivance for getting up an 



EEYIYAL SERVICES. 159 

excitement. The writer once had a part in a pro- 
tracted meeting in which a clever lay brother was 
given charge of the opening exercises. The brother 
got the idea that he was set up as a sort of decoy for 
the Almighty, and that his services were traps for re- 
vivals. He would announce: "Let us have a short, 
quick prayer from Brother Lightning. As fast as 
you can, Brother Lightning!" Then: "And now a 
good, 'hustling' song. Get ready all of you!" An- 
other announcement would be: "Let us have ten 
testimonies now in three minutes. Get a ' hump ' on 
you, brethren." (A brother recently boasted to the 
writer that he once got forty testimonies in twelve 
minutes.) "Sing that last stanza as low as you can. 
Very good! Now kneel, and sing it lower than be- 
fore. Good again! Now stand, and sing it lower 
still. All right! And now throw back your heads 
and sing it as loud as you can; do your level best!'' 
The people soon got to saying, "Tomfoolery!" and 
to feeling disgust — very much to their credit. 
Prayerf ulness and faith in God and respect for men 
will save us from this br^^ther's error. Led of the 
Spirit of God, abandoned to the labors of the hour, 
full of love of souls, the leader will have enough real 
enthusiasm and spiritual courage, without having to 
replenish himself with "monkey-show" accomplish- 
ments. 

After Meetings. The after meeting may be an 
altar service, a mourner's-bench service, or an in- 
quiry service. After the sermon, it is proper to ask 
who will act on the truth and turn to God; nay, more, 
to urge and exhort the people to act on the truth and 
turn to God. 



160 REVIVALS OF llELIGION. 

Among Methodists the altar service is in most fa- 
vor. The proposition, " Come up to the altar," has 
been answered in determinations to seek tiie Lord 
that no other proposition ever awakened. To be so 
ashamed of tlie Lord Jesus Christ as to be unwilling 
to avow him before men, and publicly renounce the 
world for him, is to be beyond the reach of his mer- 
cy. Eev. H. B. Anderson said in the North Carolina 
Christian Achocate: ''AH who have ever been blessed 
made some public acknowledgment of and sorrow for 
sin. Aud a vast majority have received the divine 
favor amid a congregaticn of j^eople. The woman 
with an issue of blood pressed through a jostling 
crowd of jeerers to touch the hem of the Lord's gar- 
ment; and when Jesus asked, 'Who touched me?' 
she came and declared unto him before all the peo- 
ple for what cause sbe had touched him." 

Caughey meets a popular objection to the altar 
with this language: "That God could convert them 
'in any other part of the chapel,' we do not deny; but 
nineteen out of twenty who get saved in this blessed 
work of God have thus come forward to be prayed 
for publicly. If the revival be of God, this is a part 
of it which he has evidently acknowledged. But to 
inquire why more are converted at the communion 
rail than in any other part of the house of God, 
would be as wise, perhaps, as to question the propri- 
ety of the angel passing by all the streams and pools 
of Palestine, and honoring only Bethesda as a place 
for healing the impotent folk." 

Many are the reasons for retaining the altar serv- 
ice. It helps to that self-renunciation without which 
there is no true repentance. It is a go in rj from. It 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 161 

breaks the continuity of influences that are upon the 
sinner. It is a going to. It brings the sinner within 
reach oi other influences, favorable to repentance 
and faith. Again, the use of the altar for this pur- 
pose invests it with so many hallowed associations 
that the first step toward it predisposes the mind and 
heart aright. The power of this law is so well known 
as to require no illustration. We avail ourselves of 
it in other things, and it is folly to disregard it in 
matters of religion. 

■ Inquiry work needs no lengthy account. It brings 
revival workers and awakened sinners together. Dif- 
ficulties are stated, questions are asked and dis- 
cussed, stumbling-blocks are removed, the way of 
salvation is explained, the appeal is awfully person- 
al, and earnest prayer and sympathetic enforcement of 
the command to repentance and faith fill in the gaps 
and animate the whole. 

Sometimes it is best to have both an inquiry and 
an altar service. The following is an aggressive 
plan: Diagram the church into sections, four or five 
pews to the section. Place a revival w^orker in 
charge of each section. AVhen the "invitation 
hymn" is announced, the w^orkers speak to those 
who occupy the pews over which they are given 
charge, inquiring into their relationship to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, supplying suitable exhortation and 
urging them to the altar. Or, after the workers have 
gone through the sections with admonition and en- 
treaty, the leader of the service invites to the altar. 
It may be best to dismiss the congregation after the 
workers have spoken to all, asking those who desire 
to be saved to remain, take up inquiry work with 
11 



162 KEVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

them, and culminate it in an altar service. It is im- 
possible to know beforehand just what will be the 
best plan to follow. 

It is seldom well to multiply propositions or to 
vary them. A single proposition, which the people 
understand and on which they move, is enough. But 
it must be a proposition that amounts to something; a 
sure-enough test, committing the sinner as a seeker 
of the grace and power of God in regeneration. It 
must be what Bishop Haygood calls a "straight- 
edged proposition." A proposition to ''stand up," or 
''shake hands" with the preacher, or "kneel at your 
seat," or ''sign a card," hardly reaches the end that 
a proposition in a revival should reach. The prop- 
osition must give expression and exercise to the 
sinner's alarm for himself and desire to escape the 
wrath to come and to be saved from his sins. It must 
mortify all that is of the flesh; otherwise it will for- 
tify impenitence. The unconverted are re-ady enough 
to satisfy themselves with a slight healing of their 
hurt, are ready enough to go in anywhere else than 
at the straight gate, and are ready enough to have 
the terms of discipleship scaled to suit their views 
and their convenience. They must be put to that 
exercise which separates them from the world and 
sends them up on Calvary "bearing his reproach." 
All else is child's play and miserable trifling. Work 
for eternity must be thoroughly and honestly done. 
It is infinitely better for our revivals to develop 
slowly and surely than with "hurrahs" and "halle- 
luiahs," through exercises that leave the sinners yet 
unsubdued and undecided, however many times they 
have held up their hands or put their signatures to 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 163 

cards. Tliorougli work at the altar or anywhere else 
w^ill command the confidence of the unsaved. They 
will appreciate the revivalist's zeal in dealing with 
them plainly and honestly. God's blessing will rest 
■upon it, and earth and heaven will hear the good, 
glad news of the lost being found and of prodigals 
welcomed home. 

Cottage and Drav^ing-room Praver Meetings. 
In some places these x3romote the interests of reviv- 
als of religion as no other measures can. They cul- 
tivate and extend the spirit of prayer; they enlist new 
helpers and more thoroughly engage old helpers; 
they tempt the timid and the young to use their gifts 
and graces; they arrest attention that ordinary means 
fail of, and reach some who have been ignoring the 
services at the church. There are sick ones, and af- 
flicted ones, and aged ones, to whom these meetings 
are great benedictions. How glad they are, when 
the meeting is held in their rooms, to be able to join 
the people of God in the prayer, '^O Lord, revive 
thy work!" And with what new strength and re- 
solves do the peoxole of God retire from these sacred 
scenes! 

The cottage prayer meeting must not be left to run 
itself. It will not do to announce: "There will be a 
cottage prayer meeting at Brother A.'s to-morrow 
afternoon. Let all who can do so be sure to attend." 
A leader must be appointed who will conscientiously 
prepare for the occasion. Enough song books for all 
who will go ought to be provided. It is understood 
that Brother A. will invite his relatives, friends, and 
neighbors to be loresent. In this way the influence 
of the revival may be sent through every street, 



164 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

across every threshold, and into every chamber, until 
the entire community has recognized and felt it. 

In cottage and parlor prayer meetings the writer 
has seen many of the most striking demonstrations 
of the power of the gospel unto the salvation of souls. 

Special Services. Of late years these have be- 
come very popular^ and are in great demand. There 
must be special services for men, for women, for par- 
ents, for children, for schools, for merchants, for 
firemen, for drummers, for railroad men, for news- 
boys, and so on ad nauseam. The writer quite re- 
cently had suggested to him that during the next 
week of the meeting he ought to preach a special ser- 
mon to the Masons, and one to the Odd Fellows, and 
one to the Knights of Pythias, and one to the Red Men, 
and one to the Elks, and one to four or five other se- 
cret and benevolent societies. Reasons may exist 
for an occasional special service, as to men or women, 
and there are reasons for a series of special services 
for the children; but the invitations of Christ are not 
addressed to classes and ranks, nor is it in the plan 
of God to save souls by orders and parties. The 
writer pleads guilty to something like impatience 
wdth everything that makes the tender of salvation, 
even for an hour or a moment, anything else than 
universal and impartial; and he believes too that the 
"whosoever" of the Royal Proclamation will stir 
more hearts, and stir them deeper, than all special- 
izing. 

Special services ought seldom, if ever, to take the 
place of the regular revival service. If they are held 
at all, it ought to be as something extra. What is 
done and preached in them ought to be like what is 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 165 

done and preached in other revival services. These 
services draw out some who v/ould not come to any 
other. This is the only reason in favor of holding 
them. 

Children's Services. The devil is seldom, if ever, 
better satisfied than when the revival is conducted 
without any special effort to interest and influence 
the children. The possibility of the conversion of 
children is no longer questioned. It ought uever to 
have been questioned. Yery much of the Bible is 
addressed to children. And in that Book of books 
there are given instances of children who knew sav- 
ingly the truth of God, who heard obediently the 
voice of Gcd, and who did zealously the will of God. 
Nor need we go back to the days of inspiration to dis- 
cover instances of piety in youth. Matthew Henry, 
whom Spurgeon calls the "prince of commentators," 
was converted when he was eleven years old; Isaac 
Watts, the hymnologist, when he was nine; Jonathan 
Edwards, when he was seven; Bishop Marvin, when 
he was four; Eev. Frank A. Branch, D.D., one of the 
most distinguished members of the South Georgia 
Conference, when he was three; while Richard Bax- 
ter and Francis Asbury, and others whose names the 
church will bless forever, were never able to tell when 
first grace taught their hearts to fear, and then all their 
fears relieved. When the Countess of Huntiugdon 
was nine years old she saw the dead body of a child 
about her own age carried to the grave. She fol- 
lowed the funeral procession, and it was then that 
the Holy Spirit made her begin to see and feel her 
need of a Saviour. 

Finney's testimony at this point is worth consider- 



166 BEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

ing. He says : "A sinner under the gospel, if con- 
verted at all, is generally converted young. And if 
not converted when he is young, he is commonly 
given up of God. Where the truth is preached 
sinners are either gospel hardened or converted. I 
know that some old sinners are converted, but they 
are rather exceptions, and by no means common." 

Wesley did not neglect the children. He preached 
to them, gave them pastoral care, and insisted that 
all Methodist preachers do likewise. Fletcher of 
Madeley included them in that eminently scriptural 
ministry which he gave the church. Count Zinzen- 
dorf promoted great revivals of religion among the 
children of Germany. In the " great awakening" led 
by Jonathan Edwards many children were converted 
and added to the church. Jesse Lee gave Saturdays 
to interviews with the children. Robert Murray Mc- 
Cheyne, answering a series of questions about the 
revival in his parish, propounded by the presbytery, 
stated: ''The ministers engaged in the work of God 
in this place, believing that children may through 
grace be saved, have, therefore, spoken to children 
as freely as to grown persons; and God has so great- 
ly honored their labors that many children, from ten 
years old and upward, have given full evidence of 
being born again." A Presbyterian minister of Ken- 
tucky, writing to a brother minister in Philadelphia 
an account of one of the camp-meeting revivals held 
early in the century, relates this: "I saw about three 
hundred new converts exhorting at one time; some 
of them were children who were held up in the arms 
or on the shoulders of men. One of them, about 
nine years of age, was put on a man's shoulder and 



KEVIVAL SERVICES. 167 

delivered, I think, a body of divinity. At length, 
when exhausted, she sank back upon her upholder, 
upon which a man who stood near affectingly said: 
' Poor thing, set her down!' She replied: ' Don't call 
me poor; I have Christ for my brother, God for my 
father, and am an heir to a kingdom!'" John B. 
Gough, the temperance apostle, did not fail to strike 
for the children as well as their parents. His ad- 
dresses to them are some of his ablest and most elo- 
quent. He confesses: "The hope of our temperance 
enterprise is the children ; and again I say, God bless 
the children, and save them from the influences which 
are degrading to so many thousands. If we can save 
the children, the day of triumph will soon draw near." 
Moody says: "I haven't any sympathy with the idea 
that children have got to grow up before they can be 
converted." 

A speaker, stepping forward to address a Sunday 
school, asked: '^What are boys good for?" He may 
have meant to answer his own question, but before 
he could, a little fellow on the front form said: "I 
know." "Tou do?" the speaker said; ''then tell us 
what." The boy answered: "They are good to make 
me7i out of." The little fellow was right. The divine 
purpose is to make men out of boys, not to have them 
v^agabonds and triflers. But there is only one thing 
that can make a man out of a boy. That is the gos- 
pel of our Lord Jesus Christ. All other instrumen- 
talities — wealth, family influence, education — howev- 
er serviceable with the gospel, without it, fail. The 
gospel never fails. 

Some one interposes: " It is impossible for children 
to understand the nature of religion, and the plan of 



168 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

salvation." This is a very old protest, but even its 
age does not make it venerable. To be able to un- 
derstand the plan is not a condition of salvation. It 
is not by understanding doctrines, but by trusting 
Jesus, that we are accepted of God, and made heirs 
of eternal life. Childhood is trustful. In youth faith 
is easy. The mind is free from the cares that come 
with subsequent years. The heart has not wound its 
tendrils around earthly objects as it soon will have 
done. Bad habits have not established their domin- 
ion over the life. The power of evil association has 
not piled up its obstruction in the way. The pride of 
reason has not yet fortified against the claims of piety. 
The emotional nature is not corrupted. It is easier to 
believe in the days of youth, before the evil days come. 

Who understands the scheme of redemption ? Paul 
said it was without controversy a great mystery. It 
confounded his mighty intellect. Peter said the rev- 
elations contained in the Scriptures were ''things 
hard to be understood." The prophets searched and 
inquired in vain when they saw the cross down the 
centuries, and wondered what it meant. Even angels 
"make no progress as they turn their desire to look 
into these things into infinite study." It certainly 
cannot be right to keep a child from coming to Jesus 
simply for the failure to understand what mystified 
inspired men, and is yet the astonishment of heaven's 
hierarchy. 

When a lady said, "No, I can't let my little girl go 
to the altar; she doesn't understand what she is do- 
ing," the writer said: "Tou don't understand what 
you are doing in forbidding her to come to Jesus. 
Could you but realize the enormity of your sin, you 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 169 

would go to the altar with her — not to pray for her, 
but for yourself, that God forgive you for putting 
yourself between your little girl and the kingdom of 
heaven." 

"But will they hold out?" O, Mr. Objector, will 
not God keep them? He has promised to carry the 
lambs in his bosom. Of much testimony to this 
point that might be had, we quote only the witness 
of Spurgeon. He said: "I have, during the past 
year, received forty or fifty children into church 
membership. Among those I have had at any time 
to exclude from church fellowship, out of a church 
of twenty-seven hundred members, I have never had 
to exclude a single one who was received while yet a 
child." Any other result would contravene the best 
known laws of our physical and mental and spiritual 
constitution. In the case of young converts, all the 
wonderful power of habit is on the side of religion. 

The conversion of children often leads to the con- 
version of their parents and other members of the 
family. There are instances of revivals starting with 
a boy or a girl taking the yoke of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The church has not yet begun to appreciate 
the possibilities of Christian childhood. 

The children's service during a revival of religion 
ought not to be unlike the usual revival service. 
Children are quick to observe changes and varia- 
tions, to seek the why and the wherefore; and they 
resent variations and changes made on the assump- 
tion that they were bereft of all but a little sense. 
The same seriousness and earnestness and sympathy 
that are exercised in the other services are demanded 
in this one. There must not be any lowering of in- 



170 EEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

terest, any lowering of zeal, any lowering of style. 
Let the sermon be warm, pertinent, and personal. 
Broadus remarks on this subject: '' Merely to refrain 
from using long words is not the thing needed. Chil- 
dren understand polysyllables just as well as mono- 
syllables, w^ien they represent concrete and familiar 
or easily intelligible conceptions. Eschew all ab- 
stract terms. And, instead of argumentation, give 
them facts and truths, confidently stated with the 
quiet air of authority to which children naturally 
bovv\ Let these facts and truths be so stated, de- 
scribed, or illustrated as to awaken the imagination. 
The illustrations should generally be in the form of 
narrative (as the Great Teacher's v/ere), and the sto- 
ries and descriptions should be pictorial — not mi- 
nutely finished pictures, for children weary of those, 
but with broad outlines, prominent features, and viv- 
id touches of suggestive detail. Thus telling them 
what they will receive as interesting facts or impor- 
tant truths, and in such a way as to charm the imag- 
ination, we are able to reach the child's affection and 
conscience." 

What Sir Walter Scott says about ^'writing doivn 
to the capacity of children" is true of '^preaching 
down'' to the capacity of children. "It is all folly. 
Give them something to grasp after, and they will 
grasp that which will astonish you." As an illustra- 
tion of this, we may refer to the success of Rev. Arch- 
ibald Alexander, D.D., LL.D., in preaching to chil- 
dren. The sermons he gave them were masterpieces 
of exegesis and logic, entirely bare of anecdote and 
illustration, yet they enchained large congregations of 
children, who heard the distinguished preacher with 



REVIVAL SEllVICES. 171 

rapt interest and permanent i3rofit. Gougli asserts: 
" We underrate the capacity of children to understand 
— altogether underrate it. You read the life of Jesus, 
the life of Moses, or the life of Joseph, to your boy of 
five years, from the Bible, and if he does not under- 
stand these narratives, he will understand nothing." 

Zeal must be spent in having brought into the 
services for children the children of the street as 
well as those who are in the Sunday school and the 
families of pious people. The children's service is 
not just for those who are the children of the church. 
It is to lose a x^recious opioortunity, it is to make a 
fearful mistake, not to bring them in from the high- 
ways and the hedges. They are out there — dirty, 
ragged, hungry, homeless, friendless, depraved. They 
will be men and women, by and by. What sort of 
men and women? That depends upon the influence 
that gets hold of them uoid! Let the influence of 
good men and good women get hold of them; let the 
influence of the church get hold of them; let the in- 
fluence cf the word of God get hold of them. Let 
us bring them to Jesus, that he may get hold of 
them. We may then safely intrust all that is in the 
future's keei^ to them. In a recent sermon. Moody 
said: "I sometimes think that if an angel were to 
wing its way to heaven and tell them that there was 
one little child here on earth — it might be one of 
those shoeless, coatless ones you call a street Arab — 
with no one to lead it to the cross of Christ, and if 
God were to call the angels round his throne and ask 
them to go and spend say fifty years in teaching that 
child, there would not be an angel in heaven but 
would respond gladly to the appeal. We would hear 



172 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

even Gabriel saying, 'Let me go and win that soul 
to Christ.' We would see Paul buckling on his armor 
again, and saying, 'Let me go back to earth that I 
may have the joy of leading that little one to his Sav- 
iour.' Ah! we need rousing; there is too much apa- 
thy among professing Christians. Let us pray God 
that he may send his Holy Spirit to inspire us with 
fresh energy and zeal to do his work." 

Revival Songs and Music. It is important to 
provide suitable songs and music for the proposed 
revival. Where the songs are unattractive, and the 
singing bad, the people are wearied and worried, and, 
put into a frame of mind wholly out of correspond- 
ence with the wishes and purposes of the leaders. 
Music is a great charmer. In the only book God 
ever wrote its triumphs are celebrated. 

Many a conversion has been ascribed to the influ- 
ence of sacred song, Kev. Matthew Cranswick, a 
Wesleyan missionary, certifies that he has a list of 
the names of more than two hundred persons, old 
and young, of every rank of society, who received 
direct evidence of acceptance while singing, ''Arise, 
my soul, arise." Rev. B. Carradine, D.D., related the 
following in a letter to the Kentucky Methodist: "I 
thank God that I know a number of the old-time 
Methodist altar hymns. I find they are brimful of 
power. I was kneeling by a young lady who was 
sobbing at the altar, and felt drawn to sing, 

What wondrous love is this, 
O my soul ! my soul ! 

I passed on to the second stanza, 

When I was sinking down, 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 173 

and still she wept; but when I reached the verse, 
Ye winged seraphs, fly! 
Bear the news! bear the news! 

she raised her head, and, with a shining face looking 
upward, uttered such a cry of holy rapture and pure 
delight as I shall bear with me in my memory for- 
ever." Dr. x4.bel Stevens says that when Charles 
Wesley's hymns, vfith simple but effective tunes, 
spread among the early Methodist societies, "hun- 
dreds of hearers, who cared not for the preaching, 
were charmed to the Methodist assemblies by their 
music. It secured them much success among the 
susceptible Irish. A curious example of its power 
is told by one of the Irish preachers. At Wexford, 
the society was persecuted by papists, and met in a 
closed barn. One of the persecutors had agreed to 
conceal himself within it beforehand, that he might 
open the door to his comrades, after the people were 
assembled. He crept into a sack hard by the door. 
The singing commenced, but the Hibernian was so 
taken with the music that he thought he would hear 
it through before disturbing the meeting. He was 
so much gratified that at its conclusion he thought 
he would hear the prayer also; but this was too pow- 
erful for him: he was seized with remorse and trem- 
bling, and roared out with such dismay as to appall 
the congregation, who began to believe that Satan 
himself was in the sack. The sack was at last pulled 
off him, and disclosed the Irishman, a weeping peni- 
tent, praying with all his might. He was perma- 
nently converted." 

Rev. George O. Barnes held a protracted meeting 
in one of the blue-grass towns of Kentucky, at which 



174 REYIYALS OF RELIGION. 

this happened. All the churches of the place got 
applications for membership, and among them was a 
church that taught the dogma of baptismal remis- 
sion. The day the class was to be received into that 
church came. Brother Barnes and his daughter 
Marie, his singing companion, w^ere present. The 
congregation that assembled was given a very long 
and furious dissertation by the pastor on immersion 
as the way of salvation. As the preacher concluded 
his discourse, urging his hearers to be wise in the 
day of opportunity and receive of him the saving 
ordinance, he marched out into the river and an- 
nounced that he would at once proceed to administer 
the rite. He turned to Brother Barnes and said: '*As 
thev come, will you and Miss Marie sing something? " 
The evangelist answered, " Certainly," and calling a 
number, led in singing, 

What can wash awav my sins? 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus, 

and gave it wdth a distinction of fervor and spiritual 
emphasis wd:iich overtook the error that had been 
preached and turned the hearts of the people to trust 
in the Lamb of God. 

Finney gives us an interesting account of a re- 
markable effect produced in a y^rotracted meeting by 
a celebrated organist. The instrument " was a power- 
ful one, and the double bass pipes were like thunder. 
The hymn [a favorite one wdth Finney] was given 
out which had these lines: 

See the storm of vengeance gathering, 
O'er the path you dare to tread: 

Hear the awful thunder rolling 
Loud and louder o'er your head. 



REVIVAL SERVICES. 175 

When he came to these words, we first heard the dis- 
tant roar of thunder, tlien it grew nearer and loud- 
er, till at the word ' louder ' there was a crash that 
seemed almost to overpower the whole congregation. 
Such things in their place do good. But common 
singing dissipates feeling. It should always be such 
as not to take away feeling, but to deepen it." 

Generally it is best to place the service of song in 
the care of a competent leader. An unconverted 
person, no matter what may be his other qualifica- 
tions, cannot be a competent leader of sacred song. 
Most evangelists have associated with them singing 
companions, the wisdom of which is beyond reproach. 
To make the service of song contribute in the full- 
est measure to the success of the revival takes more 
time and enthusiasm and strength than the preacher 
can spare from the labors peculiar to his office. 

Before the meeting begins, enough hymn books 
ought to be secured to supply the congregation. To 
insist on this may seem superfluous. To insist on 
it is necessary. The writer was called to assist a 
brother at a church in which there was only one hymn 
book. Where it is possible, organize a gospel cho- 
rus and drill it in the hymns the revivalist general- 
ly uses. This chorus ought to be ready for duty as 
soon as the meeting begins. It is folly to leave so 
important a matter as the service of song to the mercy 
of accident. The very forethought that provides for 
it is worth much in a revival. It shows such an ap- 
preciation of the possibilities of the service as will 
insure attention to it with the spirit and with the 
understanding also. We do nothing well that we do 
wholly from impulse. 



176 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

Revival songs ought to be appropriate. Songs 
that are suitable at the first of the meeting are not 
so at the last when desolation has been overtaken 
and times of refreshing have come. It hardly seems 
like it ought to be necessary to urge this, but it is. 
Some singers, spiritually-minded and gifted with 
powers of ex^jression truly enrapturing, seem utterly 
destitute of the sense of fitness in selecting songs. 
This writer once had a chorister who could not be 
broken from singing, " Lord, dismiss us with thy 
blessing," at the first or very early in the service. 
He would sing evening psalms in the morning, and 
vice versa. This chorister once lost a good friend by 
his expertness at blundering. A visiting preacher, 
at the conclusion of a very long and, truthfulness in- 
sists, tiresome sermon on justification by faith, asked 
the chorister to announce a number. He took the 
Conference hymn, "And are we yet alive," and sang 
it through with an elation which indicated that he 
thought there was especial reason, then and there, for 
giving glory and praise to Jesus for preserving grace 
and strength to endure. Another singing evangelist, 
associated for a short time with the writer, had a fond- 
ness for singing halleluiah choruses after sermons on 
eternal punishment and the danger of procrastination, 
and judgment hymns at the praise service. 

Seldom is it wise to indulge solos. This question 
pivots on the consecration of the soloist. Some vo- 
calists are as single-hearted and self -forgetful as the 
most devoted itinerant on the frontier or mission- 
ary alone in heathen land. For all such let us thank 
God. But we find in some communities young men 
and young ladies who sing well, or think they do, 



EEVIVAL SERVICES. 177 

but are worldly-minded and unconverted, and either 
directly or through their friends they will insist 
upon doing solo service. It is trite to say that those 
who are not religious cannot do religious service. 
Nothing can be gained by putting a spiritual duty on 
an unregenerated person. If these people are really 
zealous to see a work of God, and anxious to help 
in promoting a revival of religion, they will not be 
at a loss to find other things that they can do more 
profitable than solo singiDg. The fact that they in- 
sist upon singing solos, and generally get very angry 
unless they are allowed to do so, evidences that they 
are influenced by some self-seeking rather than God- 
glorifying ambition. If circumstances are such that 
it is impossible to refuse the aspiring vocalist, a good 
plan is to permit the service but reserve the right of 
selecting the pieces. This writer knows of a vocalist 
who was employed by a church to render a solo at 
each service. The evangelist did not feel called to 
iDterfere with the arrangement, although it was 
obnoxious to him; but he prayed very earnestly 
for the sky-scraping soprano and soon had her con- 
verted, and she forgot all about the solos and the con- 
tract to sing them, in her consuming desire to help 
at the altar and in the congregation and wherever 
there was a soul inquiring for God. It may be well 
to repeat what has already been given as the writer's 
judgment: this question pivots entirely on the conse- 
cration of the soloist. 

Revival songs ought to be reviving songs; songs 

that melt the heart, awake the emotions, engage the 

mind, stir the soul, and animate the being. They 

should be like the songs we find in the Bible: of 

12 



178 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

varied character, but all adapted to impress the truth 
as it is iu Jesus, to aid the soul in its approaches to 
God, and intensify its delight before him. Some- 
thing about ''redeeming love" best suits a revival 
song. They ought to be glad ijieces of great joy. 
The sovereign spirit in a revival of religion is a spirit 
of rapture on account of redemption. That is the spirit 
that ought to sanctify all our songs, revel in our 
choruses, and lead carnivals of praise. Haydn's 
church music was always exultant. Some one asked 
him why it was so; he said: ''I cannot make it other- 
wise. When I think of God, my heart is so full of 
joy that the notes must leap and dance." The ran- 
somed of the Lord do not come to Zion as Russian 
exiles to Siberian mines, but as children of the light 
and inheritors of glory, " with songs and everlasting 
joy upon their heads." It is the glad song that con- 
strains men to desire the grace of God that is in 
Jesus Christ. It is the glad song that is to the 
woi'ld " the smile of hope and grace of encourage- 
ment." Cromwell led his soldiers into battle singing, 
''Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." Luther 
made the exhilarant forty-sixth Psalm the battle hymn, 
the watch cry, the keynote of the Reformation. The 
advent of the Son of God was not proclaimed in minor 
chords and dismal dirges, but in glorias and ecstasies 
of jubilation. So ought it to be proclaimed from gener- 
ation to generation, till all the world is filled with and 
in accord with the joyful sound, and "the great voices 
in heaven " wake the anthem of coronation, the p^an 
of triumph: " The kingdoms of this world are become 
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he 
shall reign forever and ever." (Revelation xi. 15.) 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Eeviyal Methods, or Dealing with Sinisers. 

IN the work of regeneration there is generally em- 
ployed human agency as well as cliA^ne agency. 
There is a part for us to do, as well as a part for God 
to do. We cannot do God's part. He does not do oar 
part. With him is all the grace and power. We are 
to be his agents, his witnesses, his ambassadors. We 
are to speak every word that might persuade, to exert 
the fullness of our influence, and to compel with all 
the power from on high with which we may be in- 
dued. God does all the rest that can be done. The 
Bible does not speak of regeneration as entirely the 
work of God. On the contrary, the Bible speaks of 
.--men winning souls (Proverbs xi. 30); of men turning 
others to righteousness (Daniel xii. 3); of men gain- 
ing and saving the lost (1 Corinthians ix. 19-22); of 
men converting sinners from the error of their ways 
(James v. 20). Here are given us five terms which 
indicate and define man's part in the work of a soul's 
preparation for heaven. We may " win," may "turn," 
may ''gain," may ''save," may "convert" the erring 
and the perishing. Not without God. Without him 
we are less than nothing. Without him we can do 
nothing. Nay, more; we believe that long before we 
approach a sinner, God has approached him, and that 
God is with us when we plead and exhort in his name. 
God is alv/ays ahead of us in this work. He delivers 
the invitation before we go with it. "The Spirit and 

(179) 



180 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

tlie bride say, Come." (Eeveiation xxii. 17.) Botli 
say, " Come," but the Spirit says it first. This is the 
consideration that keeps gospel workers strong and 
hopefuL 

In dealing with sinners it is necessary to know 
what we have to do, to keep the aim and end of our 
labors in view. The end and aim are to induce the 
soul to renounce sin and unbelief, to come out on the 
Lord's side, and begin the pursuit of holiness. A 
great many revival workers make a fearful mistake 
here. They seem to think that they are called to 
keep sinners from feeling bad, to apply to them sun- 
dry consolations, and support them with human sym- 
pathies. Some take the opposite view, and think 
their business is to lead the soul through a series of 
nightmare experiences. Revival workers are not 
promulgators of feelings — comfortable or uncom- 
fortable, serene or cataclysmal. When they ijlead 
the cause of God, it is not with the purpose of excit- 
ing any particular emotion or provoking any emo- 
tional exercise, but of overcoming unbelief and the 
love of sin. Unless they do this, they fail — feeling 
or no feeling. When they do this, they succeed — 
feeling or no feeling. 

The writer was requested to call on a young lady 
who was inquiring the way of salvation. He went in 
company with the wife of one of the pastors inter- 
ested in the meeting. The young lady seemed to be 
in a good deal of trouble. The pastor's wife at ouce 
began to apply the promises of the Bible, and to per- 
suade the young lady not to feel bad, but be of good 
cheer, and so on, that way. It did not take two min- 
utes to see that the Holy Spirit had wrought a thor- 



REVIVAL METHODS. 181 

ougli conviction, but tliat tlie young lady was chiefly 

concerned in trying to escape tlie wrath to come, 

without surrendering her heart to God and changing 

her manner of life. The writer frankly assured her 

of the impossibility of salvation by compromise. 

She then said she could not give up the world; she 

had so many friends, so many means of pleasure, so 

many good things to enjoy. All she wanted was to 

make a definite and unchallengeable arrangement for 

getting to heaven after death, but until then, or until 

old age came, continue a life of selfish vanity and 

worldly enjoyment. At last she said: " What must I 

do?" The writer answered, explaining as simply and 

earnestly as he could the way to be saved. As he 

proceeded, the young lady became more and more 

distressed, and it was clear that she was resisting the 

truth. She shook her head, and kept saying: ^'I 

can't; I can't." The pastor's wife who was present 

then said, ''I think you are too hard on her; you 

have discouraged her ; " and then resumed her pleasing 

occupation of reciting precious promises to one who 

had no will but to resent the authority of God, and no 

purpose but to keep up friendship with the world. 

Seek soul hy soul — 07ie at a time. Andrew "find- 
eth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him. We 
have found the Messiah." And the record is: "He 
brought him to Jesus." So Philip of Bethsaida: 
he "findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have 
found him of whom Moses in the law and the proph- 
ets did write, Jesus of Nazareth." Nathanael heard, 
believed, answered, and was numbered amoug the 
disciples of the Lord. 

How much of the life of Christ, as we have it in 



182 EEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

the record, was given to personal effort for the sal- 
vation of single individuals. It is a hand-to-hand 
contest with Nicodemus. Andrew and Matthew w ere 
directly called to follow him. He opened the door 
of the kingdom close to a city of Samaria when there 
was but one woman to come in. He stopped on the 
way to take Zaccheus, a publican, and make him an 
inheritor of salvation. His heart yearned for a rich 
young man w^ho came to him with earnest inquiries, 
but was too much in love with the world to forsake 
it. After tlie resurrection he found Thomas and con- 
vinced him; he found Peter and restored him to peace 
and joy in the kingdom. 

Harlan Page, that devoted "fisher of men," had no 
other method than that of going directly to sinners, 
one by one, presenting a tract, speaking a word in sea- 
son, breathing an earnest prayer. How many he led 
out of darkness into light w^ill never be known till 
their crowns are counted on the advent morning. 
This was the method of John Scudder, and that 
modern prophet of Georgia, Miller Willis. Brother 
Willis w^as not a preacher or anything official in the 
church, but a seeker of lost souls, and the embodi- 
ment of the love of Jesus and the power of the Spir- 
it. He sought men, one by one, pursued them to 
their homes, to their places of business, to barrooms 
and gambling hells, and, holding up the cross of 
Christ, exhorted to repentance and faith. Moody 
confesses that his most effective work is not in the 
pulpit, but in the inquiry room, where he meets sin- 
ners face to face, and deals with them as they have 
need. 

Some years ago, this writer was helping a brother 



REVIVAL METHODS. 183 

in Kentuck}^ Tlie time was limited to seven days, 
on account of anotiier eDgagement. Five days passed 
in fruitless toiling. At the first service of the sixth 
day the writer said: "We have been going at this 
wrong." I can be with you just one more day after 
this. We will have to change our methods. Now, I 
wall ask you who are converted, each, to take one soul 
— just one — and begin at this service, and give the 
next twenty-four hours to earnest, patient, prayer- 
ful effort for the salvation of that one. How many of 
you will? " It was a conntry church, but a good many 
stood up and gave the promise. That day the pow- 
ers of evil were shaken. In the homes of the people 
were prayers and conversions, and at the following 
public services many came out on the Lord's side. 

How many Christians are there in your city? Fif- 
ty? one hundred? five hundred? a thousand? more 
than that? Enlist them to seek each the salvation of 
a soul, to go at it at once, to be earnest about it, to 
persevere in it, to suffer themselves on no account to 
be discouraged, and, as certainly as the Bible is true, 
as certainly as God lives, there shall be showers of 
blessing npon yonr city, precious revivings again, 
and times of refreshing from the presence of the 
Lord. 

MaJce sinners see that you are really alarmed for them. 
It is not meant that you are to put on any excitement 
or pretend to any anxiety. There is no need of such 
as that. It is meant that, appreciating the worth of 
a soul, alive to its possibilities in the grace of God, 
contemplating its present wretchedness and final des- 
tiny without Christ, you should let your sympathies 
move yon without restraint. 



184 BEVIVALS OE RELIGION. 

When Michael Angelo had before him some work 
of especial interest and importance, before even pre- 
paring the canvas, he would lock himself, for an en- 
tire night, in a room with a naked corpse. All night 
he inquired of the dead. All night, communing with 
the dead, he sought the subjugation of the vain and 
false within him; then, with conceptions intensely real 
and serious, he wrought as for eternity. It is not 
from trifling thought and shallow conviction that 
any worthy zeal is evoked. If, for one night only, 
disciples of the Lord would lock themselves up with 
the thought of a dead soul— the dead soul of a child, 
of another loved one, of a neighbor; see it wither- 
ing under the trials of the last clay, driven into pits of 
damnation, wandering with w^eeping aud wailing and 
gnashing of teeth over fields of irremediable woe — 
the conclusion of the exercise would find them break- 
ing through stone walls of indifference and taking 
hold of sinners with an earnestness all-constraining 
and invincible. They would begin to deal with sin- 
ners just as the angels did with Lot on the morning 
of the destruction of Sodom. Lot began to linger in 
the streets. He evidently was loath to leave a city 
so fair, in which he owned so much property, in 
which he had so many friends, and in which he had 
enjoyed so many distinctions. Perhaps, too, he was 
inclined to skepticism in regard to the fire and brim- 
stone story the strangers he had entertained told 
him. He had never heard of anything like that; 
why should he believe it? But the angels knew — 
oh, they knew — and, laying hold of him with both 
hands, they hastened him on and set him outside 
the o-ate. 



EEVIYAL METHODS. 185 

Tliis alarm for the lost was one of the features of 
the Saviour's niinistry. He saw the ruin that was 
impending, he saw the curse that was falling, he saw 
the place that was prepared for their x^unishment, 
and his soul was overwhelmed in an amazement of 
sorrow and anxiety. He said it were better for a 
man never to have been born than to go out into 
eternity with an unpardoned sin on his soul; and he 
told about flames that never expired, and worms that 
never died, and outer darkness of despair, and cries 
for succor that were answered in irreversible nega- 
tives. These visions suggested that impressive ques- 
tion: " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul ? " (Mark viii. 36.) 

One of Whitefield's biographers says of him that 
when he preached it was as if he stood between heav- 
en and hell, " listening to the groans of the damned 
on the one hand, and the songs of the redeemed on 
the other; as if he could hear the knell of eternal 
death tolling over lost souls, and all the caverns of 
despair echoing with their groans; as if he *had 
measured eternity, and taken the dimensions of a 
souL'" 

There will be, there can be, no full measure of suc- 
cess in winning souls till the disciples of the Lord 
have abandoned themselves to this holy distress on 
account of the lost. This gives meaning to their 
expostulations and significance to their zeal. 

Let your approach, ichen you seek to turn a sonl to 
God, he natural, ivithout affectation. If your salvation 
is real, an easy approach, will be bat the logical out- 
come of it. It is a great mistake to assume another 
tone of voice and another manner, when we present 



186 REYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

the claims of religion. No one is obliged to affect a 
nasal twang and a scarecrow physiognomy in order 
to impress a soul with the word of God» Parents 
are not obliged to take their children into the parlor 
or a room seldom occupied, and shut the door, and 
pull down the blinds, when they would teach them 
the fear of the Lord. Sanctimoniousness is not sanc- 
tification. 

Mrs. Catherine Booth, so long of the Salvation 
Army militant, now of the Salvation Army trium- 
phant, furnishes this striking illustration: ''If you 
have a friend afflicted with a fatal malady, and you 
see it, and he does not, you don't begin to descant on 
the power of disease and the way people may secure 
health, but you say: ^My dear fellow, I am afraid 
this hacking cough is more serious than you think, 
and that flush on your cheek is a bad sign. I'm 
afraid you are ill — let me counsel you to seek med- 
ical advice.' That is the way people talk about earth- 
ly things. Now do exactly so about spiritual things. 
If your friend has a spiritual disease, tell him so, and 
deal w^ith him just as straight and earnestly as you 
would about his body. Tell him you are praying for 
him, and the very concern that he reads in your eyes 
will wake him up, and he will begin to think it is 
time he was concerned about himself." 

In the town in which the writer lived, some years 
since, there was a very wicked, sin-loving man. He 
was a professional gambler, an open scorner of things 
religious, and of deplorable influence with young 
men. With all this, he was distinguished by not a 
few sterling qualities: generous, sympathetic, frank- 
hearted. He had been of considerable service to the 



REVIVAL METHODS. 187 

parsonage, and, on the preacher's account, began to 
attend church. The writer prayed for him and wept 
before God. By and by, it seemed that he could live 
no longer wathout the conversion of that soul. After 
many hours S|jent in prayer^ he set out to find his un- 
saved friend and bring him to Jesus. The Lord 
went before, and the man was found in the very best 
place for the interview. There was an exchange of 
polite greetings, then some talk about the weather, 
and then a long, awkward pause. The man saw that 
something was on hand, and evidently wondered what. 
The writer said: " Colonel, what would you think of 
a man who professed to be the friend of another, but 
gave him no warning of approaching trouble? " Im- 
mediately he answered: '' 1 w^ouldn't think much of 
him as a friend." That was enough, embarrassment 
was now all gone, and faith was full of courage; and, 
as the w^riter drew his chair nearer, he said: ''Nor 
would I; and, Colonel, you are the man in danger and 
I am the friend come to give you notice of it." He 
was now thoroughly startled, and the writer kept 
on: " God knows the way you are living, and I know 
something of it. You know it wall damn; and both 
of us know that there is no other way of escape but 
by Jesus Christ, and you neglect his salvation; and I 
must tell you too that I have been so alarmed for you 
that I have given this day to prayer and fasting." 
Before the writer was this far, the man's lips were 
trembling and tears starting from his eyes; and until 
the interview closed he was helpless before the truth. 
If the people of God would address themselves to the 
salvation of souls in this easy, simple, direct, natural 
way, they would soon have their towns and cities 



188 EEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

shaking before the power of God, just as Charleston 
did when earthquakes made riot under its founda- 
tion stones. 

Being natural is not being mild and tame. Just the 
contrary. 

On such a theme 

'Tis impious to be cahii. 

"The king's business requireth haste." (1 Samuel 
xxi. 8.) ''Bind the chariot to the swift beast." 
(Micah i. 13.) "Of some have compassion, making 
a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them 
out of the fire." (Jude 22, 23.) "Whatsoever thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." (Ecclesi- 
astes ix. 10. ) To wdiat enthusiastic effort, and readi- 
ness in season and out of season, and consecrated ag- 
gressiveness, and tireless audacity do these texts 
direct us! 

Thomas Betterton, the famous English actor, af- 
firmed that theaters w^ould soon be deserted if actors 
spoke like preachers generally did. When an Angli- 
can bishop asked him how it w^as that the clergy who 
speak of things real affected the people so little, and 
the players who speak of things imaginarg affected 
them so much, he replied: "My lord, I can assign 
but one reason: w^e players speak of things imaginary 
as real, and too many of the clergy speak of things 
real as though they were imaginary." Equally wise 
and pertinent was the answer the celebrated Garrick 
gave when asked how a sermon should be delivered. 
He said: "You know how you would feel and speak 
in a parlor concerning a friend who w^as in imminent 
danger of his life, and with w^hat energetic pathos of 
diction and countenance you would enforce the ob- 



REVIVAL METHODS. 189 

servaiice of that which you really thought would be 
for his preservation. You would not think of play- 
ing the orator, of studying your emphasis, cadences 
and gestures; you would be yourself, and the interest- 
ing nature of the subject impressing your heart would 
furnish you with the most natural tone of voice, the 
most proper language, and the most suitable and 
graceful gestures. What you would thus be in the 
parlor, be in the pulpit, and you will not fail to 
please, to affect, and to profit." 

Dr. J. Addison Alexander, of Princeton, for many 
years attracted great crowds of educated and cultured 
peo^Dle to hear his brilliant and eminently spiritual 
sermons, which he delivered with very much anima- 
tion. Later on in life, he preached the same master- 
pieces, but in a quiet, mild, and easy manner, and his 
audiences steadily declined and fell away entirely. 
The delivery, the style of address, had to do with it. 

We may say, " Fire! fire! " in such a manner as to 
make the impression that there is no fire. We may 
say, " Escape! escape! " in such a way as to make the 
impression that everything is all right. The tone 
can unsay the word, the manner make the warning 
a pleasing benediction. One winter morning, in the 
years ago, when this writer was a boy, he was crowd- 
ing close to a fire with his little sisters and some 
other children of the family. It was early morning, 
and they had come out of their room into the parents' 
where a lively fire was blazing. The parents were 
still asleep. Just the children were awake, crowding 
there, laughing, joking, teasing each other, and trying 
to get warm. One of the little girls' dresses swept 
too close to the flames, and the boy saw it when it 



190 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

began to burn. He did not know what to do. He 
was afraid of scaring his sister; he did not want to 
excite her, and so he said in the easiest way he could: 
'* Little sister, your dress is afire." And she just 
shook her curls and laughed: "Oh, you can't fool 
me ! " But by this time the flame was ready to speak, 
ready to scare her, ready to excite her; and she saw 
it leaping up her dress, and like most people on fire 
she started to run. At the door a servant girl, provi- 
dentially coming in, caught her, threw her down, and 
with assistance saved the little girl from an awful 
death. You think that boy was a very foolish one. 
He thinks so too. Since then he hasn't been afraid 
of scaring people or exciting them. His only fear 
is that he may fail to scare them as he should. 

At a Methodist church, in the State of Florida, of 
which the writer was once pastor, the preacher was 
urging the necessity of enthusiasm in the service of 
the Lord. The fact is, he was defending the Metho- 
dist Church, it having recently been subjected to 
much ridicule on account of its all-consuming zeal. 
The preacher said: "We have to be enthusiastic to 
make people see we are in earnest. Now, if I should 
observe to Brother Amos [Brother Amos was an 
old saint on the front pew; he was very deaf aud 
had to sit close to hear anything at all], 'Brother 
Amos, I perceive the process of combustion proceed- 
ing at your domicil,' the dear brother would doubtless 
smile and think me up to a little fun; but if with 
countenance as well as voice engaged, I should cry, 
and with very much excitement, at the top of my 
voice [the preacher was now all action], 'Brother 
Amos, your house is afire!''' The old brother had 



REVIVAL METHODS. 191 

not heard mncli of tlie sermon, and lie entirely 
missed the first part of tlie sentence in which his 
name figured; but he now saw an excited preacher 
swinging his arms, and heard him crying, " Brother 
Amos, your house is afire!" and he jumped to his 
feet, and broke down the aisle as fast as he could run 
calling, " Fire! fire! fire! " The preacher's argument 
Avas better than he knew. The congregation was con- 
vinced that there was as much in the how as there is 
in the wliat, that the weight of words is as important 
as their seyise, and that manner as well as matter has 
significance. 

In dealing with unconverted souls, awakened or 
unawakened, as far as you know and can, warn them 
of particular sins. John the Baptist shows us the 
true method. He had something else besides a vague 
and indiscriminate call to repentance. He leveled 
his finger upon the Pharisees and Sadducees, and 
charged them with hearts intensely bitter and devilish ; 
he turned to the publicans and said, '' Quit oppress- 
ing the people; " he came to the soldiers and said to 
them, " You must stop your wanton cruelty and vio- 
lence to men, and study to be content." This is the 
method of Sam Jones, w^hen he thunders, " Quit 
your meanness! " He makes meanness not an indefi- 
nite thing, but lying, stealing, adultery, hatred, ac- 
tual transgression. 

We may well xoonder the following words of Wes- 
ley: '^I never heard or read of any considerable re- 
vival of religion which w^as not attended wdth a spirit 
of reproving. I believe it cannot be otherwise; for 
w^hat is faith unless it w^orketh by love? Thus it 
was in every part of England when the present re- 



192 REVIVALS OF PtELIGlON. 

vival of religion began, about fifty years ago. All 
the subjects of that revival, all the Methodists, so 
called, in every place, were reprovers of outward 
sin. And, indeed, so are all that, ' being justified by 
faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ.' " 

Eev. Mark Guy Pearse tells the story of a member 
of the church who got drunk, and sought to go back 
to God and have the joy of salvation restored. He 
prayed very earnestly and at great length, but re- 
mained unrelieved. The preacher said, " Pray again;" 
and they knelt down again, and the backslider said: 
'' O God, thou knowest thy servant in a moment of 
nnwatchf ulness was overtaken by sin." " Nonsense ! " 
the preacher said. " Tell the Lord you got drunk." 
That was another matter. It took a good deal to 
bring that up. He began again: '' O Lord, thou 
knowest thy servant in his weakness and frailty was 
overtaken by a besetment." But his friend and pas- 
tor would not put up with that, and insisted: "Tell 
the Lord you got drunk and made an ass of yourself." 
Then the poor fellow cried out: "O God, have mercy 
on me; I got drunk!" And God heard the prayer 
and vouchsafed pardoniug mercy. 

A minister of the gospel called to see a 3'Ouug mar- 
ried woman who was dying. He showed her as plainly 
as he could the mercy and v/isdom of God in Christ 
Jesus, and, by and by, the woman said she believed 
and accepted it. But there was an uneasy, troubled 
expression upon her face; and the minister, who knew 
something of her life and personal disposition, said: 
"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not 



REVIVAL METHODS. 193 

men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive 
your trespasses." At this the dying woman began 
to weep. "Where is your mother?" the i3reacher 
asked. *' Isn't she coming? " Still the woman wept, 
and the preacher repeated with earnest emphasis the 
words he had before quoted. Then he said: ''Are 
you going to die without being reconciled to your 
mother?" Life was fast going. All present were 
full of prayer for the departing soul. She evidently 
saw the Saviour near, but the mother with wdiom she 
had had a foolish and bitter quarrel stood between. 
It was a fearful, indescribable struggle. Then she 
cried with all her might: " Send for her, send for her, 
as quick as you can; and God have mercy on me!" 
In less than an hour the mother was weeping at the 
bed, weeping on the face of her daughter, covering 
her hands and cheeks and lips with kisses, and com- 
forting her and rejoicing with her for salvation come, 
as deepened the darkness of the valley of the shadow 
of death. 

A Presbyterian elder, in one of Finney's revivals, 
was given a great baptism of the Holy Ghost, and 
was immediately distinguished by power in prayer 
and testimony. A brother elder came from a neigh- 
boring city to attend the meeting and went home 
with this one for dinner. Tie recognized the change 
in his host, and asked: "Tell me how you got this 
heavenly blessing." The host looked at him and re- 
plied: " I fell down on my knees, and said to God, 'I 
have told you my last lie; I will never tell another 
one as long as I live; ' and the Holy Ghost descended 
upon me, and I have been so gloriously filled since 
that time, I scarcely know whether I am in the body 
13 



194 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

or out of it." The visiting elder sprang to his feet 
and ran into a sitting room near by, and fell on his 
knees, and cried: '' O my God, I have told my last 
lie! I will never tell another lie, on my knees or off 
my knees, as long as I live." And when he got np 
and returned to the dining room, it w^as with a fire- 
crowned heart. 

Whitefield relates the story of a man who kept 
complaining to a friend that he could get no peace 
with God, though he confessed his sins every day, 
and had even made a list of them from which he 
prayed. The friend took the list and read it through, 
and said: '^ I don't think your list is worth anything 
at all, for the biggest one of your sins, I see, is left 
off." The astonished man asked, ^'What is that?" 
and his friend said, "The sin of unbelief." The ar- 
row hit the mark; the man's conscience owned and 
felt its guilt; he sought God again, and soon was on 
his way rejoicing. 

That is not a scriptural charity which exercises 
itself only in warm embraces and terms of endear- 
ment. God says: "As many as I love, I rebuke and 
chasten." (Eevelation iii. 19.) The wise man de- 
clares: " Faithful are the wounds of a friend." (Prov- 
erbs xxvii. 6.) Bishop G. F. Pierce observed: ''In 
every unregenerate man there is some spot that 
pinches and galls, some habit when the truth checks 
and disturbs him; right there is his whole quarrel 
with revelation, and against that his passions and 
prejudices burn and boil together. We must probe 
the wound, lay it bare, give vent to its stench of 
rottenness, apply the knife and the caustic. Never 
mind the groans and the complaints; rub in the salt. 



REVIVAL METHODS. 195 

The disease is mortal; the patient will die without a 
suddeu, powerful remedy." 

The interests at stake and everything involved de- 
mand seyioiis)iess in deaUng icith sinners, A serious 
message calls for a serious messenger. It is very 
often that impenitent sinners answer the appeals and 
warnings of friends with a smile, a laugh, a clever 
bit of humor, or a fool's trifling. Sinners do not 
know their peril. They glory in that which should 
shame them, and laugh at that which should make 
them weep. They ''make a mock at sin," reckon it 
a little thing, and wonder why anybody should make 
such a "to do" about it. Paul tells us that he 
"ceased not to warn everyone night and day with 
tears." (Acts xx. 31.) Spurgeon, while delivering 
a very impressive sermon, stopped and said: "I 
think I feel this morning like Dante when he wrote 
his ^ II Inferno' Men said he had been in hell, he 
looked so like it. He had thought of it so long that 
they said, 'He has been in hell,' he spoke with such 
an awful earnestness." In the worker's heart there 
must first be felt 

No room for mirth or trifling here, 
For worldly hope or worldly fear, 

If life so soon be gone ; 
If now the Judge is at the door 
And all mankind must stand hefore 
The inexorable throne. 

With characteristic propriety, Wesley remarks: 
^' There are some exempt cases, wherein, as a good 
judge of human nature observes, ^ Bidiculum acri for- 
tius ' — a little well-placed raillery will pierce deeper 
than solid argument. But this has place chiefly when 
we have to do with those who are strangers to religion. 



196 BEVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

And when we condescend to give a ludicrous reproof 
to a person of this character, it seems we are author- 
ized to do so by that advice of Solomon: 'Answer a 
fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own 
eyes.' " 

Seriousness is not moroseness; earnestness is not 
suUenness. The love of souls makes us unspeakably 
sorrowful on account of their sins and guilt; but the 
heart of that one who believes on Jesus is set to the 
song: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come! " He re- 
joices and praises God that though sin abounds, there 
is a grace that even more abounds; that though the 
mystery of iniquity works, there is a mystery of god- 
liness going forth to overtake it; and that Jesus 
Christ, the Prince of Peace, the King of Glory, has 
" come to make his blessings flow, far as the curse 
is found." This is the gospel worker's testimony, 
and it is his rejoicing — abundant and sure. Serious 
and tearful, for the Master was a "Man of sorrows;" 
happy and exultant, for, with faith's discerning eye, 
we see the travail of his soul, and what satisfies him 
will satisfy us. 



CHAPTER IX. 

^ Eevival AVorkeks. <. 

OF workers, not dreamers, this chapter treats. It 
is easy enough to breathe out pious wislies and 
sigh for a revival of religion; easy enough to lament 
when things are going wrong, and to get excited wlien 
tlie ark is carried into the country of the enemy; but 
something else besides groans, however orthodox, is 
necessary. Sure never was there a revival of religion 
promoted without hard work. 

The obligations to unite in effort for a revival rest 
upon others besides the preachers. The Father in 
heaven wishes to have all his children engaged in 
advancing the interests of his kingdom. That is an 
unnatural child who is not concerned for his father's 
prosperity. To do something for God, to be of use 
in the kingdom of heaven, is the first impulse of a 
regenerated heart. "When the question, '' What must 
I do to be saved?" has been answered and salvation 
has come, again the soul inquires: "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" For a striking and affecting 
illustration, take the thief on the cross who was saved 
at the eleventh hour. He was saved by faith, but it 
was a faith that worked by love. He turned to the 
other thief crucified there, reminding him of their 
common vileness, and testifying to the "matchless 
worth" of Israel's rejected and crucified Messiah. 

" The gospel is God's economy of grace for the en- 
tire race of man, sunk in the same ruin. By the first 

(197) 



198 KEYIYALS OF KELIGION. 

Adam came one generic fall; by the second Adam 
comes one generic redemption — a universal remedy 
for universal sin. Between these lost souls and this 
great salvation, the one living link is tJie believer, whose 
lips and whose life are to unite in witnessing to the 
'Lamb of God who taketh away tije sin of the world.' 
The glorious work, the dispensation of the gospel, is 
committed to us all, being one wdth Christ by faith, 
love and labor are to make us a bond between him 
and the lost whom he came to seek and to save." 

Three reasons have been suggested as to w^hy our 
Lord Jesus Christ has ordained and arranged to have 
his kingdom propagated in the w^orld by human in- 
strumentality. ''The main one probably is tliat the 
human being, himself transformed, restored to God 
and his image, and inspired with his love, would be 
the most effectual ambassador that could be sent. 
Another reason might be that Christ chose to put 
this honor on his own brethren after the Spirit — 
those v/hom he had redeemed from among men, and 
w^ho have chosen him as their Sovereign, with his 
cross, and its consequences, in preference to the 
pleasures, riches, and honors of this world. Third, 
it might be that no other instrumentality would be 
so calculated to bring glory to the Father — tiie weak- 
ness of the human agent exhibiting most perfectly 
the excellence of the divine power." 

Those w4io are " laborers together with God " in 
revivals of religion must first of all take heed unto 
themselves. There is that w^hich they must be, be- 
fore there is aught for them to do. 

There must be reeognition of God as iJie one and ab- 
solute Master. It is of importance paramount to re- 



REVIVAL WOllKEllS. 199 

member that Jesus Christ is " head over all things to 
the church." The introductory verses of Paul's epis- 
tles show that he thought it necessary to keep before 
himself and before others the fact that he was not a 
servant of men or of parties, or of varying sentiments, 
or of popular prejudices, but of God the Father and 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. "There was a man sent 
from God whose name was John;" so one of the 
evangelists begins his account of the ministry of the 
harbinger. It is impossible that any service be pure 
in its purpose and earnest in its zeal unless there bo 
down deep in the heart of the man who gives himself 
to it the consciousness that he, too, is "sent from 
God," that he has heaven's authority for his minis- 
try, and that he will have to give an account to God. 
No matter what may be one's splendors of genius and 
brilliance of talent, personal magnetism and store of 
pathos, no matter what influence may attend and what 
distinctions crown him, if his calling and election to 
the mission he essays have not been of God, if his 
enthusiasm is not with reference to the Great Task- 
master's will, he can but run in vain and fight as 
those that beat the air. To recognize the Lord Jesus 
Christ as the only Master requires consecration and 
devotedness to the things that he says do. If he is 
the Master, certainly lie may direct our energies. To 
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Master 
requires that we be perfectly satisfied and thoroughly 
rejoiced with his approval, though all the world con- 
demn and hate. 

Revival workers must be incarnations of the gos- 
pel they profess and recommend. No man can per- 
suade others to be religious if he has not first per- 



200 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

suaded himself to be religious. A formalist can per- 
suade others to formalism, a member of the church 
can persuade others to join the church, a professor 
of religion can persuade others to profess religion, 
but only one who has been born again and has the 
witness within him can lead others to true repent- 
ance and to the faith that saves. God does not or- 
dain unholy men to holy responsibilities. 

The world is much better able to read the nature 
and perceive the beauty of religion in a man's life 
than in the Bible. "They that obey not the word 
may be won by the conversation " of such as are 
truly devout. A rabid papist said to Bishop Jewell: 
"I should love thee, Jewell, if thou wast not a Lu- 
theran; in thy faith thou art a heretic, but surely in 
thy life thou art an angel." Lord Peterboro, when 
visiting Archbishop Fenelon, heard no argument 
from him on the claims of Christianity. The vener- 
able prelate let logic alone, and in the presence of 
the infidel simply lived such a life as he was wont to 
do when there were no infidels present to witness. 
Well known is the exclamation of the distinguished 
deist when about to leave the archbishop's: "If I 
should stay much longer, I shall become a Christian 
in spite of myself." Hume confessed that all his 
philosophy "could not explain a Christian life." 
Bunsen said to his dying wife: "My dear, in thy 
face I have seen the eternal." When Addison was 
drawing close to the end of life, he sent for his son- 
in-law, a man who avowed infidelity, to "come and 
see how a Christian dies." But there is something 
convincing in how a Christian lives, as well as how he 
dies. Perhaps more. 



REVIVAL WOKKERS. 201 

The man who is a Christian is better and far more 
excellent than any man who is not a Christian. It 
matters nothing how exemplary, how gracious, how 
splendid the other may be, he who is least in the 
kingdom of God stands head and shoulders higher 
still. "The Christian is the highest type of man." 
Now, that is what revival workers must make the 
unconverted see and acknowledge, if they would ad- 
vance the cause of Christ. '' It is the life which fur- 
nishes the mallet by which to drive the chisel of the 
tongue." 

Revival workers must have abundant and unvary- 
ing faith. It takes faith to fill the mind, to enrapture 
the heart, to dominate the life. The men who have 
been of any service to the world, or of any service to 
heaven, have been men who believed in something 
with all their souls. That was the only difference 
between Columbus and his contemporaries. He be- 
lieved something about the world, at which they 
shouted, "Absurd! Impossible!" 

To be full of faith is to have such confidence in 
God as to defy difficulties, to ignore obstacles, and 
reckon opposition as though it were not. 

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, 
And looks to God alone. 

Kev. W. B. Godbey says: "I am an old revivalist. 
I never saw a place where I could not have a revival. 
I always made it a rule to pray till I received the 
gift of faith for a revival at that time and place. I 
then went into the conflict with victory in sight. 
Twenty years ago, w^hen presiding elder, I laid siege 
to the town of C . A noted man lived there, dis- 
tinguished for his intelligence, popularity, sociability, 



202 KEYIYALS 01^ EELIGION. 

and for his musical talents; lie was exceedingly in- 
fluential, especially with the young people, and a 
ringleader of the fandangoes. Notwithstanding his 
rowdy predilections, such were his musical gifts that 
the people thought they could not sing without his 
leadership. He seemed to stand in the way of all 
the sinners in the community. On arrival I went off 
into the woods and prayed for him in person till 1 
received the gift of faith for him and a revival. He 
came to the first meeting so convicted that he could 
not sing. He responded with enthusiasm to the first 
invitation; wrestled Jacob-like till he came through 
bright as a sunburst. The sinners followed him like 
sheep, and glorious was the victory. When you re- 
ceive the gift of faith for a revival, the revival is 
sure to come. The difficulties which beggar all hu- 
man solution are not in God's way at all." 

Our faith is the measure-line of all our blessings. 
''According to thy faith, so be it unto thee," is said 
to men now as it was of old. And it may be written 
down in the record book of God's kingdom, as the 
explanation of our barren cliurches, the explanation 
of our fruitless toiling, the explanation of our unsuc- 
cessful efforts to promote revivals: "Christ could do 
no mighty work there, because of their unbelief." 

This is the victory, even our faith! If we are what 
God wants us to be, and are intent upon the thing to 
which he appoints us, and faint not, in due season 
we shall reap. Never were there such stories written 
as those that tell the triumphs of faith. Have faith 
in God. "All things are possible to him that believ- 
eth." (Markix. 23.) 

Bevival workers must "pray witJiout ceasing.^^ Says 



REVIVAL WORKERS. 203 

the Master: "If ye abide in me and my words abide 
in you, ye shall ask vv^hat ye will, and it shall be done 
unto you." (John xv. 7.) Watson observes: *'The 
tree of promise will not drop its fruit unless shaken 
by the hand of prayer." Charnock defines prayer as 
''nothing else but a presenting God with his own 
promises, desiring him to work that in us and for us 
which he hath promised to us." 

It is related of John Wesley that on one occasion, 
as he was riding along on a turnpike, he saw a man 
kneeling by the roadside breaking stones. "Ah," 
said the preacher, " I wish I could break the hearts 
of some who hear me preach, as easily as you are 
breaking those stones." The man looked up and re- 
plied: "Did you ever try to break them on your 
knees? '^ The question might embarrass some; it did 
not Wesley. His was a life of prayer. One who 
knew him thoroughly says: "He thought prayer to 
be more his business than anything else; and I have 
seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of 
countenance that was next to shining." 

The great Welsh preacher, Mr. Williams, of Wern 
— one oi the princely trio of that land of great 
preachers: John Elias, William Williams, and Christ- 
mas Evans — left this testimony: "The old ministers 
were not so much better preachers than we are, and 
in many respects they were inferior, but there was 
an unction about their ministry, and a success at- 
tended upon it now but seldom witnessed. And what 
was the cause of the difference? They prayed more 
than we do. If we would prevail and have power 
with men, we must first prevail and have power with 
God. It was on his knees that Jacob became a 



204 EEVIVALS OF KELIGION. 

prince, and if we would become princes we must be 
oftener and more importunate on our knees." 

Luther said that to pray well is to study well. His 
confession is familiar: "I have so much to do that I 
cannot get on with less than three hours a day pray- 
ing." Bramwell never gave less than six hours a 
day to secret prayer. Of Spurgeon's constancy and 
fervor in prayer there is much evidence. Dr. T. L. 
Cuyler says: "When I have heard Mr. Spurgeon 
pray, I have not been so astonished at some of his 
discourses." 

David Livingstone on two occasions preached a ser- 
mon of wonderful power. At each time five hundred 
people were convicted. Both sermons were preceded 
by a whole night spent in prayer. John Welsh, min- 
ister of Ayr, used always to place wraps and over- 
coats close to his bed, to put on when he awoke in 
the night, as he habitually did to engage in stated 
seasons of prayer. He often expressed his astonish- 
ment that any Christians could lie in bed all night, 
without waking up to pray. Dr. James A. Duncan 
said in regard to a sermon of great power that he had 
preached, when asked its secret: *'The secret of that 
sermon is thirteen hours of consecutive prayer." 
Bishop Matthew Simpson said, in reply to a similar 
question: "I don't know what is the secret of my 
pulpit power, unless it is that I am so often on my 
knees in secret, holding communion with my heav- 
enly Father." A distinguished minister, whose ser- 
mons were blessed unto the conversion of many thou- 
sands, was asked: ''How do you get up your ser- 
mons?" He said: "Get up my sermons? I don't 
get them up at all; I get them down." Every sue- 



REVIVAL AVOEKERS. 205 

cessful servant of the Lord Jesus Clirist gets down 
from on bigii, in response to the prayer of faith, that 
wisdom, grace, and strength which fits him for wdiat 
he has to do. 

The Epicorth Herald, Chicago, 111., sent out the 
question, *'Wliat was the most effective sermon you 
ever heard?" to a large number of people. Among 
the many interesting replies which came was one 
from Kev. AV. W. Case, D.D., San Francisco, Cal. 
He said: " Bishop Simpson was the greatest preacher 
I ever listened to; William Morley Punshon, perhaps, 
came next, with Bishop E. S. Foster a close third. 
One of the most effective sermons I ever heard was 
preached nearly thirty-five years ago by pastor A. S. 
Newman, of the Jamestown Swedish Mission. The 
last day of the meeting had come, and there had 
been no conversions, and very little religious interest 
manifested. The preachers w^ere quite disappointed 
and much discouraged. Who should preach the 
closing sermon in the evening? No one cared to 
preach the funeral sermon over a dead meeting. It 
was suggested that the Swedish brother might do for 
that service, as there w^as not much at stake, tie 
consented. For hours he icrestled tvifh God in a re- 
tired place in the forest; and when he came to the plat- 
form to preach, his face shone as I fancy the face of 
Stephen did. In the preachers' tent, in the rear of 
the stand, the ministers were resting and listening to 
the sermon. Not more than fifteen minutes bad 
elapsed until there began to be heard a rattling 
among the dry bones. The preachers slid out of 
their retreat and took seats on the platform. The 
saved throughout the congregation began to shout 



206 KEVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

tlie praises of God. Sinners were crying out for 
mercy. At tiie end of twenty-five minutes Brotlier 
Newman stopped speaking, and on the invitation of 
Eev. George W. Gray, of the East Ohio Conference, 
scores of people rnslied to the altar and cried for 
mercy. The meeting continued with unabated inter- 
est until sunrise the next day. It was estimated that 
between fifty and one hundred were converted that 
night." 

Men of prayer are men of power. The Lord Je- 
sus Christ himself says "Amen" to the earnest 
prayers of his servants. 

Revival workers must be eathodiinents of joy. The 
herald angels announced themselves as joy-bringers. 

In the fifty-first Psalm, David prays: "Restore un- 
to me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with 
thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy 
ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee." 
Undoubtedly very much of the success wdiich at- 
tended the early Methodist preachers was due to the 
fact that they evidenced the possession of a grace 
and principle which made them rejoice evermore. 
" That odious caricature of Christianity, which offers 
to the view of the world a man with all the doctrines 
of the gospel on his lips, but gloom on his brow, dis- 
quiet in his eye, and sourness in his bearing, has 
done infinite injustice to our benign religion, and 
infinite harm to those who never knew its worth." 
This writer used to hear in the church his parents 
attended a dear brother frequently lead the services 
or relate his experience in a testimony meeting. The 
good man extolled religion as the chief of joys, and 
deplored that he had not sooner entered in, but did 



REVIVAL WORKERS. 207 

SO in a manner that ]nade tlie boy say in his heart: 
"That ain't so; for if religion is such a good thing, 
wiiat is he moping about? " The brother affected a 
countenance like an unhealthy weeping willow, he said 
everything to the tune of '* Windham," and his gen- 
eral bearing and ad^dress were suggestive of funeral 
marches, deep jungles, and drizzly rains. Sam Jones 
tells us that when he began to preach the gospel it 
was "as only a man could preach it who knew but 
two facts — God is good, and I am happy in his love." 
"What can so well qualify a servant of God as the 
possession of those two facts? 

A joyous life does not mean constant effervescence 
and ebullition, but that which, shown to the world, 
convinces it that to be a follower of the Lord Jesus 
Christ is to be happy above all others. A dull, mop- 
ing, melancholy professor misrepresents and ma- 
ligns the gospel. The devil never gained a more 
signal victory than when he succeeded in getting the 
world to believe that religion is the quintessence of 
misery and the house of God an unliglited dungeon 
cell. It is from that falsehood that unconverted peo- 
ple speak when they put off solicitous friends with 
the remark, "I want to have a little more pleasure 
before I settle down and get religion." That false- 
hood we must fight, and by both our lips and lives 
show the w^orld that the joy of the Lord is far above 
all other joys; that from God, the source of all life 
and blessing, we drink daily an inspiration infinitely 
richer than that which fable attributes to Castalian 
fountains and Pierian springs; and that the grace in 
which we make our boast grows better and better 
day after day. 



208 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

Eevival workers must be hrave and aggressive. 
There are sins to be reproved, liyxoocrisies to be ex- 
posed, false hopes to be demolished, self-complacen- 
cies to be denounced, and cowards and weaklings are 
not competent to this. The story is told of a com- 
positor in a printing office who was " setting up " the 
verse of Scripture, "And Daniel had an excellent 
spirit in him." But the types, or the compositor, or 
both, got mixed and the proof read: ''And Daniel had 
an excellent spine in him." Spurgeon said it was not 
much of a mistake. Eevival workers who amount to 
anything must have " an excellent spine " in them. 
They must be able to stand up straight and strong 
before earth and hell, before men and devils. This 
was what Daniel had to do, and he did it. His 
" excellent spirit " revealed itself in the quality of 
his backbone. The lions' den confronted him, but he 
did not budge an inch. As long as we are identified 
with a cause, we ought to be ready to champion it, 
even if it be unto death. The fear of hurting feel- 
ings, of giving offense, of losing popularity, of stir- 
ring up antagonism, is directly and indirectly damn- 
ing thousands. The fear of man is much more com- 
mon now than it was in the days of the apostles. 
This is one of the principal reasons why the gospel 
has not yet conquered the world. Heaven has no 
blessing for those who make vain and absurd com- 
promises with the world in the fond hope of winning 
it; but heaven attends with all its sympathy, all its 
interest, all its aid, those who are purposed to be true 
to God, let come what may. Mrs. Catherine Booth 
opines: '' It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this 
day that it provokes so little opposition. If there 



EEVIVAL ^yORKERS. 209 

were no evidence of its being wrong, I should know 
it from that. When the church and the world can 
jog along comfortably together, you may be sure that 
there is something wrong. The world has not al- 
tered. Its spirit is exactly as it ever was, and if 
Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the 
Lord, and separated from the world, living so that 
their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the 
world would hate them as much as ever it did." 
Luther said to Erasmus: "You desire to walk upon 
eggs without crushing them, and among glasses with- 
out breaking them." Above everything else there is 
need to-day of making definite the issue between the 
church and the world, of insisting that Christ can 
have no communion with Belial, and that it is impos- 
sible to compromise with shi and unbelief. There is 
need of doing this in testimony that is not uncertain, 
in a spirit that dares all things and fears nothing, 
and with confidence in God. 

Revival workers must be full of love. It is well 
to do some faithful heart-searching at this point. 
There are those who love revival services, the work 
of a protracted meeting, who are yet as destitute of 
the love of souls as the devil could wish. The ex- 
citement of the season of special effort is what they 
love and enjoy. Pastors are advised to pray, "From 
all such, good Lord, deliver us!" We must be in 
love with men, with all sorts and conditions of men, 
and so in love as to show our love in speech, in tone, 
in conduct. "Heart-failure" hands a good! many of 
our plans and enterprises down into the grave. It 
is the great infirmity of our churches to-day, and, 
more than anythin<>: else, is the death of our services. 
14 



210 EEYIYALS OF RELIGION. 

The secret of Whitefield's power was in what he 
called "soul life." His soul was alive to the necessi- 
ties and possibilities of the souls of others. It takes , 
a heart to win a heart. There is an exposition of 
this law in the story of David Cargill's missionary 
conquest on the Fiji Islands fifty years ago. The 
savages made at him with clubs and knives and 
spears and other instruments of death, and he met 
them with the only two or three words of their lan- 
guage that he had mastered: ''My love to you! my 
love to you!" This checked them, won their atten- 
tion, secured their interest, disarmed them of their 
weapons, and in less than half a century Fiji was 
converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Dr. Mc- 
All undertook his Paris mission he could say but 
two things in French: "I love you;" *' God loves 
you." That was more than even the embittered and 
God-defying communists of France could stand. It 
was irresistible; it was plenipotent. 

God is love! We cannot show men what God is 
unless we love. If w^e love — not professionally, for 
that is no love at all — they will see God in us. Dr. 
H. C. Trumbull relates a striking illustration of this, 
which he heard at a Sunday-school convention under 
tbe shadow of the walls of Tale College. The speak- 
er said: "It is usual, as is perhaps known to many 
or all before me, for classes which have graduated at 
this honored university to meet at certain intervals 
after graduation, and renew the memories of college 
life. On such an occasion, after an absence of thirty 
years from the university, a class was gathered in 
yonder hotel. They had taken their seats at their 
supper table, when a knock was heard at the door, and 



REVIVAL WOEKERS. 211 

an elderly man entered the room; his head was gray 
with silver sprinklings, his form was bent, and his 
features were wrinkled, doubtless with care rather 
than the bruisings of years, for his eye still flashed 
the fire of youth. He called many of those present 
by name, and all he addressed as classmates. But 
of the twenty-five there gathered not one knew him, 
so thoroughly had he become changed. He had 
been separated from his country and friends, in 
search of health, through most of the thirty long 
years then just past, and in those thirty years the 
line of his life had crossed that of none of his class- 
mates. A tear moistened his eye as he stood there, 
for he felt that ' he had come unto his own, and his 
own received him not.' At last, refusing to give his 
name, he stepped into the adjoining room and led in 
his son, a fine young man of eighteen years. Scarce- 
ly had the son appeared, when the voices of all ut- 
tered the name of the now remembered classmate, so 
perfectly did the features of the young man reflect the 
youth of the father." The world has forgotten God. 
He is in none of its thoughts. Men eat and drink 
Avithout him, buy and sell without him, marry and 
build homes without him, rejoice and weep without 
him. They do not see him in anything. His sons 
and daughters must reveal him. When they are fol- 
lowers of him as dear children, and walk in love, the 
living beauty will be recognized as the reflection of 
the image of a Father in heaven. Unless we have 
love^ and manifest love, we are as empty sounds. 
All else, without love, is nothing. Though vv^e speak 
with the tongues of men and angels; though we have 
the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries 



212 REVIVALS or EELIGION. 

and all knowledge; and tliougli we have faitli so that 
we can remove mountains; and though we give all our 
goods to feed the poor; and though we take martyr- 
dom at the stake — and have not love, the love that 
suffereth long and is kind; the love that is not puffed 
up; the love that is not easily provoked; the love 
that thinketh no evil; the love that beareth all 
tilings, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endur- 
eth all things; the love that never faileth, we are 
nothing before God, and less than nothing in labor 
for souls. 

Revival workers must be Jiumble-minded, meek and 
loiiiy in heart. This means a consciousness of little- 
ness, of unw^orthiness, of unprofitableness. This 
means an apprehension of the spirit of the harbinger 
wdien he said of the Lord: "He must increase, but I 
must decrease." (John iii. 20. ) Paul never boasted 
that he w^as anything. At one place he says he was 
"not meet to be called an apostle" (1 Cor. xv. 9); 
after this he said he was " less than the least of all 
saints" (Eph. iii. 8); just before his martyrdom he 
declared . that of sinners he thought himself "the 
chief" (1 Tim. v. 15). That is true what Rev. E. E. 
Hoss, D.D., says in a Cltristian Advocate (Nashville, 
Tenn. ) editorial: "The clearer the vision of the All- 
holy, the more lowly does the penitent sink in self- 
contempt and self -abhorrence." When multitudes 
were thronging around Whitefield in Boston, and 
were following him from one side of the city to the 
other, and from the churches to the commons, he was 
in the valley of humiliation, deploring his spiritual 
lack and exceeding unfitness. He says: "I was so 
vile in my own sight that I thought the people w^ould 



REYIYAL WORKERS. 213 

stone me." Out of tliis recognition of his imper- 
fection, he rose to those soul-ref resiling views of 
Jesus and liis grace whicli constrained his zeal 
and thoughts and emotions to the end of life. It was 
because he had a heart empty of self and self-right- 
eousness that he could speak to sinners, old and 
young, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, witli 
a fervor and wisdom that persuaded tliem ere they 
were aw^are, and gathered them in contrition and 
confession around the cross of Jesus. Sam Jones is 
beyond all else an exponent of the grace of humility. 
If it could be written out, the unaffected joy he has 
in giving help and sympathy to all men, esteeming it 
a privilege to be of service to the humblest and the 
poorest, in making himself a slave to those for whom 
no one cares, the volume would amaze the world. 
Great as he is as a master of assemblies, he is greater 
still as the master of himself. He says: ''I am not 
'banking' on the fact that I am a revivalist, or that 
I preach to men and move them, but on the fact that 
God can use me for little things, and that my name's 
written down." At another place he says: ^^ I got a 
good look at myself thirteen years ago, and I haven't 
met a man since that I didn't think more of than 
of Sam Jones." Again: "Thank God, I have never 
forgotten the pit from which I was dug! They have 
talked about my heights, and of my falling from 
those heights. To the top of Calvary is not very 
high, and lying down at the foot of the cross is not a 
very dizzy altitude." 

But we need not go to men to find a pattern of 
humility. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes 



214 REYIYALS OF EELIGION. 

he became poor, that ye through his poverty might 
be rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.) An elegant and accom- 
plished writer, George Gilfillan, remarks: "He was 
humble all his life long, and never more so than 
when working his miracles. How he shrunk, after 
they were wrought, from the echo of their fame! He 
did not rebuke the woman of Samaria for proclaim- 
ing her conversion, but he often rebuked his disci- 
ples for spreading the report of his miracles. If we 
would understand his profound lowliness, let us see 
him, who had been clothed with the inaccessible light 
as a garment, girding himself with a tow^el, and wash- 
ing his disciples' feet; or let us look at him who erst 
cr»iie from ' Teman and from Paran,' in all the pomp 
of Godhead, riding on an ass, and a colt, the foal of 
an ass; or let us watch the woman washing his feet 
with her tears, and wiping them with the hairs of her 
head; or let us sit down by the side of the well of 
Samaria, and see him who fainted not, neither was 
weary with his * six days' work a world,' wearied upon 
this solitary way, and hear him, who was the Word 
of God, speaking to a poor and dissolute female ' as 
never man spake.' Surely one great charm of this 
charmed life, odo chief power of this all-powerful 
and all-conforming story, arises from the lowliness 
of the base of that ladder, the ' tox3 of which did reach 
unto heaven.' " 

If the Lord Jesus Christ is in us, we will be ready 
to stoop just as he did, to lay aside all we are and 
all we have just as he did, to pour out ourselves just 
as he did. This is the royal road to helpfulness and 
influence in the kingdom of heaven. 

Revival workers must he full of the fire and power 



EEVIVAL WOEKERS. 215 

of the Holy Ghost. The difference between men wlio 
fail and men who succeed is a difference of fire. 
The need to-day is for burning men, red-hot men, 
men all aflame. Christianity is a religion of fire. 
The Saviour came to baptize with fire. On the day 
of Pentecost tongues of fire were given. All are 
commanded to tarry till they are baptized with fire. 
God has always disowned and frowned upon the in- 
sane attempts of men to pursue their service v/ithout 
the fire qualification. 

We cannot pray as we ought without the Holy 
Ghost; we know not how to answer for ourselves 
without him; we cannot witness for Jesus unless we 
have his witness within us; we cannot proclaim the 
gospel so as to persuade those who hear without his 
accomioanying power aud demonstration; we cannot 
stand and overcome without him. "Not by might, 
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saitli the Lord of 
hosts." (Zech. iv. 6.) 

Christian workers have been divided into three 
classes, and compared to three kinds of boats — 
canal boats, sailboats, and steamboats. There are 
some like caual boats: they have to be dragged along 
by a power outside them. They have to be dragged 
out to the revival services, and dragged up to the al- 
tar, and dragged into taking a part, and dragged all 
along the way. Their usefulness depends on some- 
body else. Let alone, they would drift out and down 
the current to utter uselessness and inevitable wreck. 
There are some like sailboats: these go with the wind 
and tide. They are ready for service as long as the 
breeze is fair and the tide is favorable; but when 
tide and breeze are contrary, they are ready to make 



216 REVIVALS OE RELIGION. 

tlieir courses correspond. This class of revival 
workers make many trials for tlie church with which 
they have association. They have religion by fits 
and spasms, and their zeal comes and goes uncertain- 
ly. Tliere are some like steamboats: these go of 
their own accord. Wind and tide make no differ- 
ence. They are dependent on nothing outside them. 
Over billows and through gales, they claim a path 
and find a way. Why? Because they have power 
within them. Downstairs is a blazing heart, a red- 
hot heart, a heart of power. That is what we want, 
and what we must have for service— ^A'r^ and poicer 
u'ithin us! Then nothing will matter; lions in the 
way, swords descending, kingdoms enraged, armies 
pursuing — in spite of "all these things, w^e are more 
than conquerors through Him that loved us." Filled 
with this fire and power, we will watch and pray and 
sing and testify and plead and contend till "error, 
writhing, dies in pain; " till all lands are filled with 
the knowledge and glory of God, and the . cross of 
Jesus Christ has gone everywhere and reconciled the 
world to heaven. 



CHAPTER X. 

Power From on High. 

THE necessity of obtaining power for service is 
a natiA^e and universal consciousness. Moses 
cries: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" 
(Exodus iii. 11.) Jeremiah exclaims: "Ah, Lord 
God! behold I cannot speak; for I am a child." 
(Jeremiah i. 6.) Paul demands: "Who is sufficient 
for these things? " (2 Corinthians ii. 16.) There is 
no other labor that involves as many responsibilities 
or as many difficulties as that wdth which the servants 
of God are charged. They are set to the most revo- 
lutionary of tasks. Following their efforts, we expect 
to see men yield the most devotedly cherished con- 
victions, to renounce the habits of years, to love 
where they once hated, and to hate where they once 
loved, and, utterly oblivious of self, b^gin to spend 
and be spent for One whom having not seen they 
have yet with joy received as Prophet, Priest, and 
King. 

The necessity of obtaining power for service is 
clearly set forth in the Bible. There we are shown 
that "we know not what we should pray for as we 
ought" (Romans viii. 26); that we must have assist- 
ance if we would "know the things of God" (1 Co- 
rinthians ii. 11); that we must have an imparted gift 
of testimony if we would witness for the Lord (1 
Corinthians xii. 3); that we can have no "liberty" 
in our own strength (2 Corinthians iii. 17); and that 
all must come from God that avails, that secures sue- 

(217) 



218 EEYIYALS or EELIGION. 

cess, and that obtains victory (Psalm cxxi. 1; 1 Corin- 
thians xii. 11). We recall the words of the Master: 
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you." (Acts i. 8.) In these words the 
disciples were shown their need. Whatever their re- 
lationship to the kingdom of God, at that or any fu- 
ture time^ of the Holy Ghost they were to receive the 
power which would enable them to so preach the gos- 
pel as to awake the dead. 

Common sense insists that there must be spiritual 
power for spiritual service. All the financial ingenu- 
ity on Wall street could not qualify a man to join 
Edison in the experiments and investigations he 
loves so well and out of wdiich so much good comes 
to the world. Being a thoroughly competent engi- 
neer does not fit one for the composition of pieces of 
music. A knowledge of Latin does not enable one 
to demonstrate the propositions of geometry. This 
writer was once trying to find a position for a kins- 
man who was out of employment. A merchant told 
him of a house that was on the lookout for a sales- 
man. "Wliat has your kinsman been doing?" the 
merchant asked. " He has clerked in a store all his 
life." ^^ What sort of a store?" "Dry goods." "Dry 
goods? Well, dry goods and groceries are different 
things; and a man might handle one successfully 
and fail altogether with the other." Have you never 
seen failures in the spiritual kingdom by men who 
acknowledged no failure elsewdiere? Have you never 
said as you listened to a sermon: "What is the mat- 
ter with it? That is orthodox doctrine; that is fault- 
less reasoning; that is graceful rhetoric — hut it is not 
preaching! What is the matter with it?" And not 



POWER FEOM ON HIGH. 219 

only with reference to preaching, but as well person- 
al effort, altar and inquiry work, testimony in praise 
services, and all the forms of Christian endeavor. 
There must he spiritual jjower for spiritual results. A 
doctor of divinity, a man of distinguished ability and 
recognized scholarship, mourned to a friend: "I do 
not understand it; I preach with all my might, and 
as well as I know how, and yet, after care and prayer, 
I do not succeed in leading souls to God." That ear- 
nest, gifted minister having learned the lesson of self- 
insufficiency, needed but to learn the next lesson of 
sufficiency in a promised One — the Holy Ghost. 

It does not come within the range of the present 
inquiry to discuss the personality and divinity of the 
Holy Gliost. He is a Person of equal authority, maj- 
esty, and grace with the Father and the Son, *'very 
and eternal God." It is he who reproves and con- 
victs of sin, who instructs and strives, who invites to 
Christ and testifies of him, who gives impulse to re- 
pentance and directs in the way of salvation, who re- 
generates and sheds abroad the love of God in the 
heart, who enkindles joy, inspires hope, replenishes 
strength, gives access to the throne, sanctifies, edifies, 
u]3holds, and abides with believers. Well has he been 
referred to as the *' Executive of the Godhead." 

Varied are the offices as well as the gifts of the 
Holy Ghost. He is the Comforter of the church and 
the people of God, the Teacher of the church and 
the people of God, the Agent or Power of the church 
and the people of God. As the church must look to 
the Holy Ghost for spiritual blessedness and enlight- 
enment, so must it look to the Holy Ghost and rely 
entirely upon him for the enlargement of its influ- 



220 KEVIVALS OF EELIGION, 

ence, the extension of its authority, the enhancement 
of its prosperity, and the triumph of its cause. \V iiat 
is thus promised the churcii collectively is promised 
each member of it individually. In seeking to pro- 
mote a revival of religion, there must be constant 
reference, both in public and in private, to the prom- 
ised power and demonstration of the Spirit of God. 
What is a revival of religion but an outpouring of 
the Holy Ghost, an affusion of the spirit of convic- 
tion, repentance, prayer, and faith by the Executive 
of the Godhead? The baptism of John was the "out- 
ward and visible sign " of the bai3tism in which there 
is ''remission of sins" (Acts ii. 38); "regeneration" 
(Titus iii. 5); "adoption" (Romans viii. 15, 16). 
Peter had just said, "Whosoever believeth in him 
[Jesus Christ] shall receive remission of sius" (Acts 
X. 43), when the Holy Ghost came down upon Cor- 
nelius and his house, applied the preacher's words to 
their consciences, and verified the promise given. 
There can be no power in the written word, the expo- 
sition or the exhortation, the song, the personal en- 
treaty, or any of the measures employed, except the 
Spirit of God communicate it. Rev. T. O. Summers, 
D.D., LL.D., demands: "What are sermons, what 
are sacraments, what are sacrifices, what are disci- 
plines and constitutions and councils, w^hat is the 
ministry, what is the church itself, if not guided and 
informed and controlled by the Holy Ghost, the Par- 
aclete who is to abide forever in the church for this 
object and end?" 

There can be no revival power without the Holy 
Ghost. David prayed for the Spirit that he might 
teach transgressors the ways of God and see sinners 



POWER FEOM ON HIGH. 221 

converted unto liim. (Psalm li. 12, 13.) For the re- 
vival of Israel, Ezekiel is taught to pray: "Come 
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon 
these slain, that they may live." (Ezekiel xxxvii. 9.) 
The secret of success was shown Zerubbabel in the 
message: ''Not by might, nor by power, but by my 
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah iv. 6.) 
Joel gives us a chapter on revivals. This is the way 
they are foretold, as God speaks through him: ''And 
it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out 
my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream 
dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also 
upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those 
days will I pour out my Spirit. And it shall come to 
pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord shall be delivered." (Joel ii. 28, 29, 32.) We 
are shov/n in the book of Acts what the apostles did 
to carry into effect the great commission. In the city 
of Jerusalem tliey tarried, as the Lord commanded 
them, till "suddenly there came a sound from heaven 
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the 
house where they were sitting; and there appeared 
unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat 
upon each of them; and they were all filled wdth the 
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts ii. 2-4) 
In the city of Samaria "they prayed for them, that 
they might receive the Holy Ghost." (Acts viii. 15.) 
See also the account of Paul's visit to Ephesus. In 
all these instances, the gospel of Jesus Christ was 
demonstrated "the power of God unto salvation." 
At Revelation xi. 10, we have shown us the divine 



222 EEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

plan for revivals. The picture is that of a dead 
church over which worldlings rejoice and make 
mirth and exalt themselves. But ''the Spirit of life 
from God " descends, the dead awake and stand upon 
their feet, and great fear takes hold of all who before 
made mockery and opposition. The church rescued 
from corruption and decay is lifted up into the heav- 
enlies, to communion with God, to perfect faith and 
hope and love, to joy UDspeakable and full of glory, 
to tables spread in the presence of its enemies, who 
are overwhelmed in amazement and despair. 

The triumphs of the gospel of which we read in 
the New Testament are uniformly ascribed to the 
Holy Ghost as the efficient agent. Not only by in- 
spired penmen, but by those through whom the suc- 
cess came, the Spirit is celebrated as the power. Pe- 
ter claimed none of the glory for the conversion of 
the three thousand on the day of Pentecost. He 
recognized and published the work of salvation ac- 
complished that day as due entirely to his having 
''preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from lieaven." (1 Peter i. 12.) There was no match 
for Steplien in the city of Jerusalem. He stormed 
all the synagogues there, and they were not able to 
resist his speech. ( Acts vi. 9, 10. ) His equipment 
was faith and the power of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 
vi. 3, 5, 8.) Paul did not sit in vain at the feet of 
Gamaliel. He was the master of several languages, 
and was familiar with many literatures. But for 
success as a servant of Jesus Christ, he did not trust 
scholarship and intellectual force. On the other 
hand, he renounced all for the wisdom and power of 
God. He reminds the Corinthians: "My speech and 



POWER FROM ON HIGH. 223 

preacliing was not with enticing words of man's wis- 
dom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of pow- 
er." (1 Corinthians ii. 4.) Again he says to them: 
'' Not that we are sufficient oi ourselves to think any- 
thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 
who also hath made us able ministers of the new 
testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the 
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corin- 
thians iii. 5, 6.) Thus he was ''sure" that wher- 
ever he went it would be "in the fullness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ." This was the se- 
cret of that incomparable ministry which he finished 
with rejoicing. John testified of ''an unction from 
the Holy One," which established believers in Christ, 
and made them wise in the things of the kingdom, 
and strong to dare and do. (1 John ii. 20, 27.) 

The great reformers raised up of God trusted the 
Holy Ghost for promised cooperation. It was the 
wisdom and power of the Spirit which directed to 
triumphant issue the warfare Luther made for the 
truth. "Pray to God, and trust his direction," was 
the rule he observed and enforced. It was the at- 
tending might of the Holy Ghost which made John 
Knox more to be feared by the unholy than all the 
armies of Europe, Beyond controversy, John Wes- 
ley was a great theologian, and a great organizerj 
but the greatness of Wesley was the greatness of the 
God by whose will he was controlled, in whose love 
he was kept, and with whose power he was clothed. 
That was the greatness which made the difference 
between an exquisite clergyman, a slave to rubrics 
and canons, and a prince of the house of the Lord 
God Almighty directing a movement that was soon 



224 KEYIYALS OF RELIGION. 

felt from pole to pole. Thomas Chalmers called 
upon God, and the Spirit came in demonstration of 
the ministry of his servant, and made him indeed an 
''evangelistic wonder." What would the early Meth- 
odist preachers have been without the Spirit to help 
their infirmities? Not many of them were graduates, 
or even men of passable attainments; some of them 
could not write, some of them could not read. It 
was easy to see of them, as the scribes and Pharisees 
did of Peter and John, ''that they were unlearned 
and ignorant men." But when they got up to preach 
and cried, " There is life for a look at the Crucified 
One; oh, look, sinner, look!" the words went as 
bombs thrown from guns planted on eternal hills, 
and many were the wounded and slain of the Lord. 

The power of the Holy Ghost has been the right 
arm of our modern revivalists and evangelists. Chas. 
G. Finney wielded it, and although he was often 
assured by the ministers of the presbytery which 
licensed him that he could never have more than 
country school house congregations, and audiences 
where the people did not know much; and even 
Mr. Gale, his pastor, said, "I shall be very much 
ashamed, wherever you go, to have it known that you 
studied theology with me;" still, hundreds of thou- 
sands recognized him as "a teacher come from God," 
and great armies followed him into the kingdom of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. James Caughey entered into 
a definite and solemn covenant with the Holy Ghost 
v/ith reference to the work of an evangelist, to which 
he felt that he had an especial call. In the face of 
everything which common sense would have sug- 
gested, he gave up his Conference relationship and 



POWER FROM ON HIGH. 225 

crossed the Atlantic. He was without acquaintance. 
He was not asked to come. But in six years there 
were nearly thirty thousand added to the churches of 
Ireland and England through the ministry of James 
Caughey. And when his wonderful revivals began 
to be talked about and they asked him the secret of 
his success, he, disclaiming everything, said: 
"My fall heart replie-, 
They are born from the skies, 
And gives glory to God and the Lamb." 

Moody honors the Holy Ghost, trusts and relies 
upon him in all his offices, prays and believes for him 
to come, and the "layman, unlettered and uncul- 
tured, has the ministry of the world only too glad 
to sit at his feet and learn the art of soul- winning."' 
Thomas Harrison goes to cities that are stirred with 
prejudices and the most bitter and absurd feelings 
against him; but he does not go alone. The Holy 
Ghost attends him, and prejudices die and bad feel- 
ings are repented of, and great harvests of souls are 
gathered for Christ. The Salvationists could not 
have stood together one year except the Holy Ghost 
had been in their midst; but this army, the contempt 
of learned and dignified ecclesiastics, the standing 
jest of periodicals, the pet abomination of civil au- 
thorities; this army, strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his might, has fought not as uncertainly, 
and its triumphs are known " where'er the sun doth 
his successive journeys run." 

The Christian at Work related the following: "A 

preacher of much experience said the other day 

that be had not been relying as much as he ought to 

have done on the presence and power of the Divine 

15 



226 EEVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

Spirit in his pulpit efforts and prayer meetings. He 
sought forgiveness from God for his own pride, in- 
dependence, and self-assertion, and determined to 
cultivate henceforth, as much as possible, an inner 
consciousness of the absolute need of God's grace 
and immediate help, together with an humble yet 
confident, expectation of the Spirit's influence. With 
these feelings of renewed consecration, he entered 
upon the "Week of Prayer at the opening of the 
year, and with the happiest results. His people 
seemed to catch the same feelings; the interest in 
God's requirements and promises began to spread; 
there was a revival first in the hearts of professing 
Christians — where all true revivals commence. And 
now, many of the unconverted and hitherto uninter- 
ested are gathering every evening into the sanctuary 
to join in its prayers and hymns^ with a prospect of 
a considerable ingathering of souls." Kev. A. T. 
Pierson tells how he mourned over the barrenness of 
his ministry, and began to seek the Spirit's blessing 
upon his efforts. The Lord said unto him: "If you 
will give up the idol of literary applause, and give 
yourself to the rescue of the perishing, I will give 
you souls." He answered: **I will do it." He yield- 
ed to God, believed the promise, and in eighteen 
months was given more souls for his hire than he 
had in as many years before. These instances are 
representatives. God will give the Holy Ghost if we 
ask and comply with the conditions; and with the 
Holy Ghost is power. 

The manifestation of the power of the Spirit is 
multiform. We know what it is in the pulpit. There, 
above every other place, we want to see it. If it is 



POWER FROM ON HIGH. 227 

there, it will manifest itself. It canuot be counter- 
feited. Pathetic stories of orphan children and des- 
olate widows and grief-stricken men will not, cannot 
take its place. Deathbed recitals and horror-strik- 
ing narratives of repentance too long deferred will 
not answer in its stead. Neither will rhetoric seasoned 
with brimstone and heated seven times hot. Sepul- 
chral tones, tombstone countenances, and easily dis- 
solved eyes are impotent cheats. Noise and gymnas- 
tics are just as profitless. This poiver is spiritual 
poiver. It is felt! not necessarily seen or heard. The 
conscience owns it, whether or not does the eye or 
the ear. It breaks the heart, convinces the judgment, 
conquers the will, and takes the soul captive, without 
appealing to any of those senses w^hich answer the 
poet's art, the orator's sioell, or the logician's demon- 
stration. Terrible, sometimes, are the effects which 
follow it. Sinners fall down as dead men, back- 
sliders cry out in agony, hypocrites roar aloud, the 
lukewarm and careless awake to amazements of re- 
pentance and zeal, while saints are tossed in tempests 
of rapture, and forget that they are not in heaven. 
Bishop Kavanaugh once preached a sermon in Lou- 
isville, Ky., which was attended with this ^^ old-time 
power." The vast congregation arose. The Rev. Dr. 
Breckinridge, of the Presbyterian Church, ran into 
the pulpit and fell upon the neck of the preacher 
with kisses and exclamations of ecstasy. The city 
recognized the presence of an unusual power; the 
fire bells sounded; the engines gathered around the 
church; a great crowd came together, and the face 
of the preacher was as radiant as an archangel's! At 
a camp meeting in Georgia, during the delivery of a 



228 REYIYALS OF RELIGION. 

sermon by Kev. Jesse Boring, D.D., the people be- 
gan to fall before the sword of the Spirit, and so aw- 
ful became the hour and the scene that some minis- 
ters of the gospel went into the pulpit and pleaded 
with the preacher to desist. With difl&culty they 
prevailed, and when he sat down the entire encamp- 
ment showed what a storm of conviction had but 
lately passed over it. A similar circumstance is re- 
lated of another Georgia divine. One week White- 
field received something over a thousand letters from 
persons awakened by his preaching. Doubtless there 
were as many more who did not write. When there 
is fire in the pulpit the pews will burn. Our God 
is the God who answers by fire. 

The power of the Holy Ghost will not only be 
manifested in the pulpit, and in altar services and 
inquiry work, but as well in the most common and 
ordinary circumstances. Mr. G. was telling the writ- 
er of his acquaintance with evangelist J. B. Culpep- 
per, of Georgia. He said: ''There was something 
about him, in the tone of his voice, the way he talked 
about everything, the way he did everything, which 
affected me strangely. We were entertained by the 
same people, and at the house of our host his influ- 
ence was just like it was at the church." Often a 
power from on high would descend when Carvosso 
was asking a blessing at the table, and sinners would 
burst into penitential tears and saints shout for joy. 
Dr. S. A. Keen tells how the unction from the Holy 
One " turns ordinary conversation to account, giving 
it just the direction and savor it needs, and without 
any attempt to make it 'holy conversation' or 'talk- 
ing to people on religion.'' In a natural, nnobtru- 



POWER FROM ON HIGH. 229 

sive, spontaneous way it will yield abundant fruit. 
A Christian woman sat in a company of friends after 
an evening tea. In an artless, unaffected, unpremed- 
itated manner she spoke of her Christian experience 
— some of God's providential dealings with her, and 
the precious answers to prayer given. She seemed un- 
conscious that she was doing anything for souls, but 
tears were in many eyes — light came to hearts. When 
the social interview was over, one had found peace, 
another had returned to God, while all seemed to 
have been lifted up nearer to God. She had preached 
the gospel to the meek without knowing, and it was, 
as the gospel always is w^hen accompanied by the 
Spirit, the power of God unto salvation." 

The power of the Holy Ghost often manifests itself 
in the personal ap]3earance and address of devout 
men. Dr. Talmage gives us this: ''In my boyhood 
I saw Truman Osborne rise to preach in the villago 
church at Somerville, N. J., and before he had given 
out his text or uttered a word, people in the audi- 
ence sobbed aloud with religious emotion. It was 
the power from on high." One said of McCheyne: 
"Before he opened his lips, as he came along the 
passage, there was something about him that sorely 
affected me." A wicked man once cursed and used 
some very filthy language before Fletcher whom he 
did not know. The Vicar of Madeley looked with 
mingled grief and astonishment at the offender, who 
hung his head in shame and walked aw^ay. But he 
could not forget the expression that was on Fletch- 
er's face. It made him miserable, and sent him with 
a broken and contrite heart to God, crying for mercy 
and salvation. It has been stated on good authority 



230 ' REVIVALS OF KELIGION. 

that it was the mere sight of the apostolic face of 
John AVesley that awakened in the philanthropic 
heart of Howard the burning desire to reform the 
prisons of Europe. Finney relates the following: 
"An individual once w^ent into a manufactory to see 
the machinery. His mind was solemn, as he had 
been where there was a revival. The people who la- 
bored there all knew him by sight and knew who it 
was. [It was Finney himself.] A young lady who 
was at work saw him, and wdiispered some foolish re- 
mark to her companion and laughed. The person 
stopped and looked at her with a feeling of grief. 
She stopped, her thread broke, and she was so much 
agitated she could not join it. She looked out the 
window to compose herself, and then tried again; 
again and again she strove to recover her self-com- 
mand. At length she sat down, overcome with her 
feelings. The person then approached and spoke with 
her: she soon manifested a deep sense of sin. The 
feeling spread through the establishment like fire, 
and in a few hours almost every person employed 
there was under conviction; so much so, that the 
owner, though a worldly man, was astounded, and 
requested to have the works stop and have a prayer 
meeting, for "he said it was a great deal more impor- 
tant to have these people converted than to have 
the works go on. And in a few days the owner and 
nearly every person employed in the establishment 
were hopefully converted." 

God is no respecter of persons, or of places, or of 
times. His proposals do not mean one thing to some 
and a different thing to others. His provisions in 
grace include the whole world. His will is from age 



POWEll FROM ON HIGH, 231 

to age the same. The Bible is light to every heart 
that will let it shine in, and meat to everyone who 
will feed upon it. The blood of the Lamb slain from 
the foundation of the world 

Will never lose its power, 
Till all the ransomed sons of God 
Be saved to sin no more. 

And so with the blessings and gifts and powers and 
all the influences of the Holy Ghost. They are now 
to the world, through Christ Jesus, just what they 
were when the windows of heaven first swung open for 
the spiritual downpour. The pov/er and demonstra- 
tion with which the Holy Ghost, on the day of Pente- 
cost, applied Peter's sermon to the hearts of those 
who heard, was not meant as an inaugural demon- 
stration, but as the initial of a ministry of cooperation 
that should never cease. Moody says that '' Pente- 
cost was just a specimen day;" or, as another has ex- 
pressed it: '' Pentecost was a pattern day." Spurgeon 
contended: "It is delusion to think we cannot succeed 
as Peter and Paul and the others did." And, at another 
place: " The Holy Spirit is as able to make the word as 
successful now as in the days of the apostles." And 
Dr. William Arthur: ''Whatever is necessary to the 
holiness of the individual, to the spiritual life and min- 
istering gifts of the church, or to the conversion of the 
world, is as much the heritage of the people of God in 
the latest days as in the first." And so we sing: 

Lord, sve believe to us and ours 

The apostolic promise given ; 
We wait the pentecostal powers, 

The Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 

The last verse of the last chapter of the Gospel 



232 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

According to Mark discloses the secret of the suc- 
cess which attended the ministry of the first preach- 
ers. " They went forth, and preached everywhere, the 
Lord working with them, and confirming the word 
witli signs following." It is this that we ought to 
pray for and believe for: that when we plead with an 
erring one, or testify against sin, at home, in the in- 
quiry room, or in the public assembly, the Divine 
Spirit is speaking and testifying with us and con- 
firming the truth as we declare it, and working in 
the souls of those whom we seek both to will and to 
do. There is given us in Acts xvi. 13, 14 an account 
of the conversion of Lydia. While Paul jjreached, 
the Lord opened her heart and prepared the way for 
the seimon. The Lord does this wherever his word 
is preached by those whose confidence is not in them- 
selves, but in the spirit of conviction and conversion. 
They are "the invincibles" who live by faith in the 
Son of God, whose testimony is a declaration of the 
whole of the counsel of God, and who abound in la- 
bors with the power of the Spirit of God. 

"When and how may we receive power for serv- 
ice?" is an important question. The answer to it, 
in part at least, has already been suggested. It de- 
mands a more particular consideration. 

It is necessary that there be first in the mind a 
scriptural conception of what is to be obtained. 
This is the power of the Holy Ghost. Christian 
experience is presupposed. This has no reference 
either to the progress or perfection of Christian ex- 
perience. It is on account of others, the impenitent 
and the penitent, the lapsed and lapsing, that we 
pray the Holy Ghost to come and use us and work 



POWEK FROM ON HIGH. 233 

through us. Some make the mistake here of seek- 
ing this as a blessing for personal enjoyment. The 
church must desire and seek this for the world yet 
in unbelief and sin. This power is given the church 
in its testimony, its service, its life; not as an inher- 
itance of ecstasy, but that it may overtake unbelief 
and overcome sin and overthrow all wrong. Coming 
from or, rather, via the pulpit, its manifestation is m 
the congregation. Coming through the church, the 
community owns it, receives it, and is made anew. 
As we have seen, the church is promised this accom- 
panying power of the Spirit. 

Prayer is a condition precedent to the bestowal of 
this gift, as of every other gift. "Ask, and ye shall re- 
ceive," is a precious promise that has never been plead- 
ed in vaiu in this connection. It must be sure-enough 
praying, earnest, importunate, and full of faith. 

Fidelity to the truth as it is in Jesus is another 
precedent. The Holy Spirit does not attend with in- 
dorsement and power false doctrine and unscriptural 
dogma. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. 
Moody says: ^'Tou see a man in the pulpit that is 
filled with the Spirit of God, and he will talk Scrip- 
ture right along." Very true; and Just as true is it 
that unless the minister or worker or h amble layman 
be filled with the Scripture, he will not be filled with 
the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost does not fight 
except with weapons from the armory of heaven. 

Eecosfnition of the Holy Ghost as the agent and 
power in salvation, and faith that he works with us, is 
another precedent. It was said of those who first 
preached the gospel at Antioch: "The hand of the 
Lord was with them ; and a great number believed, and 



234 EEVIYALS OF RELIGION. 

turned unto the Lord," ( Acts xi. 21. ) Faith that the 
hand of the Lord will not fail us, immovable expecta- 
tion of great things through that Almighty hand, hon- 
ors God, evokes his approbation, commands his power. 
The story is told of a jjreacher who did not appear 
in his pulpit at the hour for service. The congrega- 
tion waited some minutes in patience, and then in 
much anxiety, and at last sent an officer of the church 
to inquire into the reason for the pastor's delay. As 
the officer approached the preacher's study, he heard 
the voice of eager entreaty: "I will not go alone! 
You must go with me! No, no; I cannot go without 
you!" The officer understood very well; and as he 
lingered there, he too began to plead: " Go with him, 
O Spirit of God, go with him! We do not want him 
without you! " A minister of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South, who knew his entire dependence 
upon the cooperating power of the Holy Ghost, some- 
times would take up a service without a realization 
of that divine presence and assistance, but with full 
confidence that in the line of duty, in the path of 
obedience, he would obtain it. Nor was he ever disap- 
pointed. During the reading of a hymn, or the offer- 
ing of a prayer, or the preaching of the word, upon 
his face would fall a light whose source was higher 
than the sun, and with a smile and a shout he would 
cry: "He's come! he's come! the Lord is here!" 
Moody was invited to one of our American cities. 
Many preparations were made for his coming, but 
the essential preparation was omitted. They invited 
the evangelist, but did not invite the Holy Ghost. 
After some days of hard, fruitless toiling. Moody 
told them that they could proceed no farther without 



POWER FROM ON HIGH* 235 

the cooperation of the power of the Spirit. He appoint- 
ed a meeting for the ministers and revival workers. 
They met, and inquired of each other, of their own con- 
sciences, and of God to know what was wrong. Then 
they knelt to ask the Holy Ghost to come and make 
the word quick and powerful, to make them efficient 
servants, and grant success to the meeting. A num- 
ber of voluntary prayers of this character were offered, 
when Moody got up and said: "Well, we've been 
praying for the Holy Ghost; I'm going to believe 
for him now. I'm going to have faith that he has 
come, and is with us, and will help us, according to 
the word." In this trust he resumed the suspended 
services, and the '' Spirit of him that raised up Jesus 
Christ from the dead" (Rom. viii. 11) descended and 
"declared him to be the Son of God with power" 
(Eom. i. 4), and begat many "unto a lively hope of 
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter i. 3,4). 

" Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." When we remember that he has 
Avrought in and by so many who once were as ignorant 
and weak as we, how he made his light to shine out 
from their broken vessels, and when they w^ere less 
than nothing made them strong to carry out God's 
purposes toward the world, let us abide in him and 
say, in word and work, "I believe in the Holy Ghost." 

"Te shall receive power." This is the promise of 
omr Lord Jesus Christ. His promise will not fail. 
It has never failed. " Ye shall receive power." Pre- 
pare for it, believe for it, pray for it, tarry for it. 

The voice that rolls the stars along 
Speaks all the promises. 



CHAPTEE XL 

Instantaneity. 

THE successful revivalist refuses to be either the 
heir or the victim of circumstances and occa- 
sions. He does not wait on opportunities. The work 
he is consecrated to promote has advanced in spite 
of convenient seasons, rather than because of them. 
He leaves flesh and blood, times and occurrences, 
multitudes and forces out of his calculations. He 
has a Spirit-born audacity which defies incidents and 
situations, overcomes them, and harmonizes them with 
its own authority. He is sure that the Lord will go 
with liim against the mighty, whether or not events 
are propitious, whether or not the outlook is encour- 
aging, and he knows that the Lord never fails. On 
the right hand and on the left, he expects to see doors 
open which no man can shut, and through seas and 
across mountains to find pre^Dared a way for his prog- 
ress. He sings with the prophet: '^The Lord God 
will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: 
therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know 
that I shall not be ashamed." (Isaiah 1. 7.) 

Every moment is a golden moment. The world 
has given us many proverbs about improving oppor- 
tunities. The Holy Spirit shows us how we may, and 
enables us to improve what is essentially inoppor- 
tune. The world says: "Make hay while the sun 
shineB." The Holy Spirit encourages us to make hay 
(236) 



INSTANTANEITY. 237 

"in season, out of season;" and pronounces a bless- 
ing upon those '' that sow beside all waters." (Isaiah 
xxxii. 20.) 

The apostles laid tribute for Christ upon every 
event, circumstance, and occasion. Thus they made 
obstacles to be measures of success, and difBculties 
to attend them as hired servants. Wesley knew well 
how to turn everything to spiritual account. See his 
sermon on the text, " We shall all stand before the 
judgment seat of Christ " (Eomans xiv. 10), preached 
at the assizes held before the honorable Sir Edward 
Clive, knight, one of the judges of his majesty's court 
of pleas; and the Earthquake Sermon on the text, 
" Come, behold the w^orks of the Lord, what desola- 
tions he hath made in the earth " (Psalm xlvi. 8); 
and others. 

It is related of an old Grecian warrior that wher- 
ever he went he thought and talked of nothing else 
but battles, and planned what he would do for the 
defense of his army should it be assaulted then and 
there. The servant of God is called to just that sort 
of a concentration and consecration of his powers, 
remembering the words of the wise man: ''In the 
morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not 
thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall pros- 
per, either this or that, or whether they both shall be 
alike good." (Ecclesiastes xi. 6.) Bishop Haygood 
says: ''We must not be afraid of wasting the gospel 
seed; we are to 'broadcast it on the land.' We must 
not pick the ground; it is all God's, and on what 
seems to us to be the poorest he can bring forth har- 
vests that will keep the angels busy and make good 
men glad. The truth is we have no methods for 



238 EEYIVALS or EELIGION. 

guaging tlie possibilities of this soil. What seems 
the worst may turn out the best." 

A minister was invited to dine with the family of 
a wealthy parishioner. He accepted the invitation. 
The home was supplied with everything which money 
could command. It was a pleasant place to visit. 
The preacher was buoyant in spirit, and talked with 
an easy and happy flow of humor about books, pic- 
tures, curios, travel, horses, stocks — any and every- 
thing but Christ. What was his surprise, as he was 
taking leave, to have his host say: "Sir, I had you to 
come to my house to talk of Jesus and the way of 
salvation in the presence of my son, who has been 
the subject of the Spirit's striving, and who has been 
seeking religion. The boy is in peril. I am afraid 
you have been an injury to him. I sent for you that 
he might be under the influence of a man of God, but 
you have been a man of the world." Severe censure 
indeed was that, but none too severe. An evangelist 
tells this: "I knew the case once of an individual 
who was very anxious, but one day I was grieved to 
find that her convictions seemed to be all gone. I 
asked her what she had been doing. She told me 
that she had been spending the afternoon at such a 
place, among professors of religion, not thinking that 
it would dissipate her convictions to spend an after- 
noon with professors of religion. But they were tri- 
fling and vain, and thus her convictions were lost. 
And no doubt those professors of religion, by their 
folly, destroyed a soul, for her convictions did not 
return." 

A Sunday-school teacher related the following: "I 
was lately called on to visit the deathbed of a young 



INSTANTANEITY. 239 

woman, who had for some time been attending my 
class, but whom I had considered an unpromising 
case. Great was my astonishment to hear her ex- 
press the most simple trust and confidence in the 
Saviour. I found that she had long been under deep 
and distressing conviction of sin, and had passed 
through a severe mental conflict, unknown to anyone 
but God. At length she had been able to lay her 
burden at the foot of the cross, and now, in the pres- 
ence of death, knew no fear. After satisfying my- 
self that there was no reason to fear self-deception, 
I asked her why she had never told me about these 
spiritual struggles. She fixed her eyes intently upon 
me, and said, very slowly: ' O, Miss Mary, how often 
have I wanted to open my heart fully to you; but I 
could not do it before others, and when I was alone 
with you, yoii always seemed to he in such a hurri/.^ 
I knew she was far from intending to reproach me; 
but bitterly did I regret my haste and negligence, 
which, but for God's abundant mercy, might have 
led to the stifling of her serious impressions and the 
ruin of her soul." 

It is while men sleep, or are busy here and there, 
or are ministering to their own comfort; it is while 
they are waiting for something to "turn up" and to- 
morrow's more auspicious occasion, that destroyers 
accomplish the remediless overthrow of souls. 

It may be questioned if Miller Willis, the Georgia 
lay evangelist, ever met a man without inquiring if 
he had religion. " How's your seal? " he demanded 
of all, following it with a suitable exhortation as he 
found need. On one occasion he was going with Dr. 
E. W. Hubert, of Warren ton, Ga, (the writer's fa- 



240 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

thor), to a churcli out in the country. He was full 
of interest in a story of grace which Dr. Hubert was 
relating, when they approached a wayside hotel, on 
the front veranda of which six ladies were sitting. 
Brother Willis sprang to his feet, and attracting the 
attention of the ladies, called out as they passed by: 
"All of you who have been converted hold up your 
hands." Two hands were lifted. The horse had not 
been checked, and there was nothing more to be said 
to the ladies. His face was all agloAv, and as he sat 
down he said with rapture unfeigned: ''Praise the 
Lord, Doctor; two of them said they were con- 
verted." 

Eev. E. W. Bigham, D.D., author of " YinnyLeal" 
£ind other books, knew Brother Willis as intimately 
and loved him perhaps as dearly as anyone did. He 
wanted his assistance in all the revivals he labored 
to promote. The following from Dr. Bigham's pen 
illustrates the evangelist's instantaneity: "The night 
after his arrival [at Athens, Ga.] as we walked to 
church together, he talked religion to everyone he 
met on the street. When we got within the lights 
flashing from the church, he stepped into a group of 
college boys and asked, 'Have you ever been con- 
verted?' I paused long enough to see that the boys 
were receiving him kindl}^ and entered the church. 
Presently he came in." One night Brother Willis 
was walking past the Kimball House (Atlanta) in 
company with some preachers. The Legislature was 
in session, and the hotel lobby was crowded. With- 
out stating his purpose, Brother Willis darted 
through the doors, made his way to the center of the 
lobby, and with his staff began to rap on the floor as 



INSTANTANEITY. 241 

loud as he could. Soon he had all quiet, and throw- 
ing his hand up as if to call God to witness, he said: 
"Fifty years from to-night every man here will be in 
eternity. Where will you spend it — in heaven or in 
hell?" That was all. He rejoined his friends on 
the outside. But eighteen months later he met a 
young man who took him by the hand, and referring 
to the circumstance, said: "Your question woke me 
up and drove me to repentance. That very night I 
turned to God, and he saved my soul." 

Brother Willis went everywhere, seeking the lost. 
He read the Scriptures and prayed in places kept by 
fallen women; he preached and sang in gambling 
hells; he invaded bars and confronted their proprie- 
tors and clerks with the question, "Are you selling 
liquor for the glory of God? " Dr. Bigham relates 
how Brother Willis once found four young men at a 
gambling table. He laid his hand on some of the 
cards and exclaimed: "Now, look what you are do- 
ing! Selling out to the devil in the beginning of 
life for a game of cards and a drink of whisky! 
Maybe your mothers are in heaven waiting for you 
there, or praying for you at home, and 3'ou here, going 
to ruin — in the very way to hell! Eepent and be 
converted, that your sins may be blotted out and 
your souls saved! Don't wait a minute; turn to God 
now, now!" Says Dr. Bigham: "One hurled away 
his cards and rushed for the streets. Miller pursued 
him and persisted to talk to him, though he cursed 
some. But in spite of his fury. Miller's arrow stuck. 
The next day he attended the meeting, and was con- 
verted in a day or two. This man is now one of the 
most valuable official members of the church." 
16 



242 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

Tlie autobiography of William Carvosso, who was 
for sixty years a class leader in the Wesleyan Meth- 
odist Connection, is an exemplification of what can 
be done by a disciple of Jesus Christ who, though des- 
titute of scholastic attainments, is "instant in sea- 
son, out of season." He let nothing and no one pass 
by unheeded. The man he met on the way, the toll- 
gate keeper, the hotel proprietor, those with whom 
he had business, all sorts and conditions of people, 
heard from him the story of Jesus and his love, and 
were encouraged to come to God. 

From the life of John Nelson, one of Wesley's lay 
preachers, may be related a circumstance which il- 
lustrates the value of instantaneity in good works. 
Ou account of his espousal of Methodism, Nelson and 
some brother Methodists were seized and hurried to 
prison in a remote city. As the officers marched 
them through the streets. Nelson addressed on the 
subject of religion all whom he could reach with a 
word, and scattered tracts along the way to the jail. 
As the result of this apparently useless effort, hun- 
dreds were awakened to concern for their souls, and 
sent off for Methodist preachers to come and direct 
them to the Lamb of God. Methodist societies were 
soon in full bloom there. 

Whitefield was a great deal more than the " prince 
of pulpit orators," as he has been characterized. 
Certainly he was that, but he was as well an inde- 
fatigable ^' field hand" for Jesus Christ. He says: 
" God forbid that I should ever travel with anybody 
a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to 
them." The first time he came to America he suf- 
fered many indignities on board shix3 from both sol- 



INSTANTANEITY. 243 

diers and sailors, officers and privates. They were 
zealous to liave liim understand that they regarded 
him as a canting hypocrite, and cared nothing for 
the services which he proposed to hold. As an es- 
pecial mark of contempt, the first Sunday that they 
were out they turned the vessel into a gambling hell. 
But Whitefield could stand the tests, fearful as they 
were. He was consistent, he was patient, he was ir- 
repressible. He put in suitable words wherever he 
could. The officers, naval and military, began to see 
their sin, and to repent of it. Whitefield's counsel 
and prayers were sought. Then it was arranged to 
have him preach twice every day. The men were 
called to the morning and evening services by a 
drum, and a revival was started in mid-ocean. Cards 
and profane books went overboard, the captains be- 
came gospel workers, and prayer and sacred song 
engaged the zeal of all. 

James Brainerd Taylor was just twenty-eight years 
old when he died, yet, as has been said, ''he did a 
work that any man might envy," One day he was 
out driving, and drew his horse up to a watering 
trough. A young man coming from the opposite di- 
rection stopped and did the same. While the heads 
of the horses were in the trough, Taylor turned to 
the young man and said: " I hope that you love the 
Lord. If you don't, I want to commend him to you 
as your best friend. Seek him with all your heart." 
Nothing else was said. The men went their ways, 
and never met again in this life; but the words so 
simply and earnestly spoken led the young man to 
Jqsus; he was educated for the ministry, and became 
one of the most devoted and successful missionaries 



244 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

to foreign lands — Dr. Champion. He said: "Over 
and over again I wished to know who that man was 
who spoke to me at the watering trough. But I 
never knew till some one sent to me in Africa a box 
of books. I opened them, saw a little black-covered 
book, turned to the title page, and there I saw a por- 
trait, a beautiful face. 'Ah,' said 1, ' that is the man. 
That's the man who preached the gospel to me at the 
watering trough. To him I owe my salvation.' " 

A blacksmith was blowing his bellows one day, 
when the saintly McCheyne stepped into the shop to 
find shelter from a shower of rain. As the coals were 
glowing with a great heat, he pointed to them and 
asked the smith: "What does that make you think 
of?" He did not wait for an answer; the shower 
was over and he went his way; but the blacksmith 
was left with thoughts of the wrath to come that 
troubled him and gave him no rest till he found his 
way to the cross. 

When Eev. Austin D. Hicks, of Kentucky, mar- 
ried, the occasion was something like the marriage of 
Fletcher, of Madeley. After the ceremony was over 
and congratulations were extended, there came a lull 
in the conversation,^ and some one, led of the Spirit, 
began to sing one of the songs of Zion. Others 
joined in, and several songs were given. Then it 
was proposed to have a love feast. It was agreed 
to, and down into the parlor the Holy Spirit came 
to distribute the blessings of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Then a "mourners' bench" was improvised, 
and a good brother began to exhort. Seekers came 
and knelt at the places prepared for them, and souls 
were married to the Saviour. 



INSTANTANEITY. 245 

The day that Finney was converted he spoke to a 
number of people on the subject of religion, and he 
says: ''I caiinot remember one whom I spoke with 
who was not soon after converted." That evening he 
sat down to tea with a family with whom boarded a 
young man employed in distilling whisky. There 
was also present an unconverted young lady. Fin- 
ney was asked to return thanks. He began to com- 
ply. As he did so, the spiritual need of those pres- 
ent came before his mind so vividly that he burst 
into tears and could not proceed. Everyone at the 
table was speechless. Then the young distiller 
pushed back his chair, ran to his room, and locked 
himself up in it. There he remained in prayer till 
the next morning, when he came out shouting the 
praises of God. This young man gave up the whisky 
business, and finally became an able and successful 
minister of the gospel. 

Mrs. Catherine Booth tells of a "gentleman who 
was invited to a party. After dinner the card table 
was got out, as usual, and when the cards were all 
spread and everybody was ready to begin, this gen- 
tleman jumped up, and pushed it away, and said: *I 
have done with this forever.' The lady who told me 
said: 'He was down on his knees before we had time 
to turn around, and was praying for us and all the 
house. Oh,' she added, ^you should have seen them.' 
Yes; of course, every man felt like the people round 
the Saviour. Every man's own conscience condemned 
him. They went off home without any more card- 
playing or dancing or wine-drinking that night." 

A lady of Ocala, Fla., a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, was awakened to duty dur- 



246 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

ing a revival of religion, and, kneeling at the altar, 
promised to do all she could to advance the cause of 
God in that city. The service was concluded, and, 
with a fixed purpose to live up to her consecration, 
she turned homeward, wondering what she could find 
to do for Christ. She lived in a very undesirable 
part of the city. Just back of her house, a low fence 
dividing the two lots, five women lived in open shame. 
Her husband had made several efforts to rent another 
place, but failed, and they decided to wait there and 
keep a sharj) lookout for a better residence. She 
reached her home, and, hardly knowing why, walked 
through the hall and sat down on the back porch. 
As she did so, she saw her five disorderly neighbors 
laughing and talking on their back porch. Her first 
impulse was to retreat. She thought: "Oh, am I to 
come home and have my communion with God dis- 
turbed in this way?" Immediately came another 
thought: "Maybe it is with reference to those lost 
women that you have been kept here." She auswered 
the thought with the prayer: "O Lord, let me know 
w^hat thou wouldst have m.e do! " She then sat down 
on the step of the porch, and, closing her eyes, began 
to sing: 

Jesus, Lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly. 

There was nothing striking about her voice, but w^hen 
the women heard her singing they hushed their noise 
aud went indoors. The song was finished, all the 
verses, and the singer felt in her heart that God had 
blessed it. The next morning, when she was getting 
ready for church, she heard some one calling down 
by the back fence. She went out, and saw standing 



INSTANTANEITY. 247 

there one woman of the five, the youngest one cer- 
tainly, a girl hardly twenty. She was leaning against 
the fence weeping. *' Will you please come here?" 
she sobbed. " Of course I will," the lady answered. 
Then the girl asked: " Wa'n't you singing 'Jesus, 
lover of my soul/ yesterday morning?" "Yes." 
"Well, wa'n't you singing that song for me?" The 
lady replied: "No; I can't say I Avas singing it for 
you, for I don't know you; but I was praying God to 
carry the song over the fence and let it fall in some 
one's heart." *'It fell in mine," sobbed the poor 
girl; "and I am so miserable. Are you going to 
have a service this morning?" "Yes." "May I go 
with you?" That was a hard test; but, before an- 
swering it, the woman asked herself, "What would 
Jesus say?'^ Then she replied: "Certainly; you 
may go with me. It is time now that we were gone. 
Get ready as quick as you can." Together they 
walked to the church, and when they entered the 
woman said: "You must sit by me." When the ser- 
mon was done and the proposition made, she said: 
"If you will go to the altar, I will go with you." At 
the altar both bowed, both wept, both prayed. Then 
salvation came, and on the bosom of Jesus, the lover 
of her soul, the weary one and heavy laden rested and 
was glad. To the next service another of the women 
came and found mercy of God; and then another, till 
four were added to the number of the saved; and the 
fifth, though not converted, was rescued from her life 
of sin. 

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver." (Prov. xxv. 11.) They are all 
around us, are with us every day, those to whom " a 



248 ilEVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

word fitly spoken" miglit bring eternal life. A kind 
hand laid upon the shoulders of a drunken book- 
binder, staggering along the streets of Worcester, 
and a kind voice calling him by name, and asking, 
"Why not sign the pledge, Mr. Gough?" arrested a 
soul hellward bound and brought into the kingdom 
of God one who became a most heroic soldier of the 
cross. 

We do not value the day of small things as highly 
as we should. There is a way of making odd min- 
utes and little fragments of time promote great 
results. There is a way of making commonplace 
things w^ork together unto ends that are not com- 
monplace. Lord Macaulay tells of an English ca- 
thedral in which there is a most exquisitely designed 
and finished window made by an apprentice working 
at spare times and out of bits of glass thrown away 
as useless. When a New York firm of gold watch- 
case manufacturers Avent out of business, they took 
up the three floors of their building with all the 
accumulated rubbish and reduced the whole to ashes. 
From one thousand to three thousand dollars' worth 
of gold had been worked over these floors every day, 
for nineteen years. Every possible care had been 
taken to preserve the least particle of gold. Even 
the towels the workmen used had been washed in 
water, which was saved and examined for specks of 
gold. From the ashes of the reduced floors and 
rubbish they extracted sixty-seven thousand dollars' 
worth of pure gold, which was the accumulation of 
bits that the most careful sweeping and painstaking 
attention had passed over, and illustrates the value 
of things reckoned as trifles. There is an orphan 



INSTANTANEITY. 249 

asyl-um in South Germany, containing over a hun- 
dred boys, supported by the sale of cigar ends, 
old postage stamps, and tinroil from bottles. In 
Paris there are four thousand rag-pickers, chiffoniers 
as they are called, employed by five hundred mer- 
chants, who care for themselves and their families 
with what they make from selling articles found in 
the dust-bins of the city. Their harvest is estimated 
at six million dollars a year. Some of the most not- 
able discoveries in astronomy were made by amateur 
observers with small telescopes. Science generally 
has yielded its truths more abundantly to humble 
individuals using imperfect instruments than to sa- 
vants distinguished and well equipped. There is not 
much in the Bible about big things; but it tells us 
how a shepherd's rod, a farmer's oxgoad, a house- 
holder's nail, a boy's sling-stone, a woman's needle, 
an unknown man's rope and basket, dedicated to the 
service of God, abashed monarchs, subdued king- 
doms, put to flight armies, and sent the gospel round 
the world. No circumstance is insignificant unless 
we choose to have it be insignificant; no moment is 
inauspicious unless we decide to let it be inauspi- 
cious; no weapon is ineffectual unless we are willing 
for it to be ineffectual. Living men as well as dying 
men ought to reckon every minute as inestimably 
precious. Those who 'Mie daily," as Paul did, will 
do so, and conform their w^ords and tones and con- 
duct and influences to the conviction that their only 
business here is to 

Watch for souls, for which the Lord 

Did heavenly bliss forego; 
For souls that must forever live 

In rapture or in woe! 



250 REVIVALS OF TtELIGION. 

It is this concexDtioii o£ duty, this solicitude for the 
lost, this eagerness for the glory of God, that keep 
them '^iustant in season, out of season," 

Revival preachers greatly increase their power 
and extend their influence by improving current 
events. Many a revival owes its success entirely to 
such improvement. One Sunday morning, during a 
protracted meeting, a good brother got up to preach 
for this writer. With considerable more zeal than 
knowledge, and an amazing innocence of the lapse of 
time, he spent two hours theorizing, philosophizing, 
allegorizing, and dogmatizing. The morning was 
sultry, and by the time he got through the people 
were, too. Ignoring or unconscious of the mischief 
he had done, he announced an invitation hymn and 
called for seekers. No one came. Then he turned 
to the writer and said, ''Lead in prayer." The 
prayer was made, announcements followed, and the 
doxology was started. The congregation looked dis- 
appointed and provoked, and everyone's face seemed 
to say, ''This meeting is dead." Maybe it was; but 
God was not. The Spirit that raised up Jesus from 
the dead can resurrect dead meetings. The doxology 
was scarcely finished and the preacher's hands raised 
to pronounce the benediction^ when a peal of thunder 
shook the house and a storm that had been gath- 
ering since the congregation assembled threw its 
shoulders against the walls. Men and women started 
to the door, and a panic seemed inevitable. The 
writer can hardly tell how it happened, but he got 
before the chancel and made the people listen to 
him. He told them of another storm that has been 
gathering through the centuries, and of the folly of 



INSTANTANEITY. 251 

putting off preparation for it. The people began to 
recognize the greater danger, the altai' filled with 
penitents, and when the storm had passed and the 
sun returned, the Sun of Righteousness was pouring 
its light for the first time into many souls, with bene- 
dictions exceeding great and full of glory. 

When Bishop William Taylor was a California 
missionary, he did a great deal of street preaching 
in San Francisco. Among the suggestions he gives 
for open-air jjreaching is this: "If by a cry of fire, 
or otherwise, your congregation is scattered, do not 
be discouraged, but watch your opportunity to take 
advantage of the disturbing excitement, and set your 
sail to take the breeze. You will probably double 
or quadruple your congregation in five minutes; 
and then, under the excitement of the occasion, 
thunder home the truth into the wakeful, curious 
minds of the crowd. An important point is gained 
when the people, by any legitimate means, are fairly 
waked up, so as to listen attentively. Get your metal 
melted and then mold it." When he was preaching 
once and the alarm of fire was sounded, his congre- 
gation left him. He remained till it got back, and 
said: "My friends, the devouring fire is a dreadful 
thing — to see the labors of years consumed in an 
hour, and poor families tarned out homeless and 
friendless. But, O my God, what are all the disas- 
ters of fire here compared with the interminable fires 
of hell, which will soon break out upon the souls of 
most of my audience, unless they fly to Christ for 
refuge? Who among us ^ shall dwell with the de- 
vouring fire?' who among us 'shall dwell with ever- 
lasting burnings?'" He tells of attending a camp- 



252 KEVIVALS OF T.ELIGION. 

meeting, at which, during service, a horse broke 
loose in the rear of the preacher's stand, and making 
a great noise among the wagons, frightened the peo- 
ple, who sprang to their feet en masse. The preacher 
in charge of tlie service was uncertain what to do, 
when a loud voice called out: ''What a dreadful 
thing it would be for an old horse to run off and 
break his neck; but for a few immortal souls to go 
down to hell is a very small matter indeed! Go 
ahead with your sermon, brother." The people fell 
back into their seats, and the minister proceeded 
with the service. 

The life of Lorenzo Dow abounds in the most sur- 
prising employment of every sort of circumstance to 
carry on the work of saving souls. That stalwart 
Methodist of Georgia, Allen Turner, had an especial- 
ly hapx^y genius for making circumstances, common 
or uncommon. 

Force the conscience to a stand, 
And drive the wanderer back to God. 

Evangelist Joseph Weber believes in using every 
occasion unto the glory of God. He is ready, no 
matter what happens. At Adrian, Mich., the safety 
valve on the boiler used for heating the church in 
which the revival services were conducted blew out 
and caused a general commotion. He commanded 
the crowd to be seated, and those who started to 
run were ordered to ''sit down," and the doors were 
closed to prevent a rush out. The evangelist started 
a familiar air, which the congregation joined in sing- 
ing, and soon the voice of song drowned the noise of 
escaping steam. When the excitement subsided, 
he thanked God for keeping them all from harm, 



INSTANTANEITY. 253 

then pressed the inquiry, " What will you do when 
you pass out into eternity, if you are so afraid of a 
little steam? " At Jackson, Mich., he was preach- 
ing to a congregation of over two thousand people. 
The text was, " The great day of his wrath is come, 
and who shall be able to stand?" For nearly au 
hour he held his audience before the judgment seat 
of God, and mauy of the stoutest hearts quaked and 
trembled. At one point in his sermon he spoke of 
the trump of God sounding. As he did so, he 
reached down and took the cornet from the hand of 
the player and held it aloft. The effect was over- 
powering. 

Bishop George F. Pierce said in a Conference ser- 
mon: *' Ministers are too much accustomed to an un- 
deviating method. Regular as a clock, but dull as 
the pendulum; the same measured sweep, the same 
dull 'ticktack;' no variety, no music. Oh, give us 
the blast of the bugle horn as it rings of a dewy 
morning over hill and dale, till the earth is alive with 
echoes! You preach at stated times and accustomed 
places. But this is not enough; you must be prompt, 
earnest, unwearied, preaching when the chances are 
more favorable and when they are less so, to small 
assemblies and to large ones, to private circles, in ob- 
scure places, in highways and hedges, to one or to 
ten thousand, before friends and foes, when it pays 
and when it costs something. Embrace every op- 
portunity that offers, and thank God for it; and when 
none offers, seek and make one." 

The Salvationists have changed the song, ''Hold 
the Fort," to " Storm the Fort." That makes it much 
more like "the signal waving from the sky." We 



254 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

are to lay siege to occasions, ojoportunities, and situa- 
tions; we are to couquer them and lay them under 
tribute to the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion is the 
chief concern. Our business is the all-important busi- 
ness. With stubborn determination take the sword 
of the Spirit; wave the answer back to lieaven, ''By 
thy grace we will," and charge! He that is with us 
is greater than all. His love, his grace, his help are 
ours and all the world's, " in season, out of season." 



CHAPTEK XII. 

ABANDONMENT TO THE WORK. 

THE leading secret of success in promoting re- 
vivals of religion is knowing what it takes to 
succeed. It takes all ice are and all we have. Nothing 
must be withheld. There roust be no calculation as 
to consequences, and no care as to them; bnt the 
consecration which accepts dangers and difEcnlties, 
and with concentrated energies, in spite of them, 
dares all things, perseveres, and never swerves. The 
zeal of God to save the world has never flagged. On 
the world's account he has taxed heaven to the ut- 
most. If we would be laborers together with him, 
we must be laborers like him. A genuine revival of 
religion cannot be promoted by half-hearted men 
who compromise and temporize, and hurry to get 
through as soon as they can — or sooner. A revival 
Pentecostal in power and results cannot be had for a 
long-drawn sigh, a fine prayer, a rattling sermon, and 
a spasm of zeal. It is a mistake to begin efforts for 
a revival with the ideas that ten or twelve or any 
given number of days will do, that we need to be en- 
thusiastic only to a certain pitch, rnd that we may 
so diplomatically direct the movement as to escape 
all opposition. We cannot tell how long the Holy 
Ghost may be finishing his work of conviction, con- 
version, restoration, and sanctification. AVe cannot 
foresee the responsibilities which will develop with 
the progress of the work of God, or anticipate the 

(255) 



256 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

obstacles and antagomsms that are sure to arise. We 
must not begin until we are willing to lose everything 
— comfort, goods, friends, reputation, even life, if nec- 
essary; nor until we are willing to be everything to 
win the erring and bring back the lost. We must 
have a wholeness or, rather, wholesaleoess to our 
consecration, the spirit that says: 

My life, my blood I here present, 
If for thy truth they may be spent. 

We must be all-intent upon the revival of the work 
of God, and care for nothing else. 

Consuming desire for a revival is necessarily a con- 
dition precedent to this holy abandonment. It is one 
thing to sing "Gather them in,'^ and "Rescue the 
perishing," and quite another thing to have a heart 
almost broken on account of the sin and unbelief of 
the world, and a soul supplied with ready energy to 
pray and testify and persuade and never weary. 
Bishop Pierce says: "You never got religion while 
you felt that you could live without it; and you will 
never have a great revival until your heart breaks 
with longing." In the process of seeking a revival 
of religion, there is a point at which the spiritual 
nature is benumbed to every other feeling except 
that of distress for sinners. This becomes the one 
absorbing consideration. The conscious love of fam- 
ily, and interest in houses and lands, and concern for 
self, are entirely obliterated. The soul goes out in 
longing and supplication: "I will not let thee go, 
except thou bless me! O Lord, revive thy work in 
the midst of the years; in the midst of the years 
make known; in wrath remember mercy!" When 
we thus desire, we need not be afraid to put to the 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WOEK. 257 

hardest possible test the faithfulness and omnipo- 
tence of oar God who promises: ''What things soever 
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, 
and ye shall have them," (Mark xi. 24) ''As soon 
as Zion travailed she brought forth her children." 
(Isaiah Ixvi. 8.) The desire must be as the sorrow 
of women in travail. "This kind goeth not out but 
by prayer and fasting." (Matthew xvii. 21.) 

With intense longing for a revival of religion, and 
everything arranged with reference to it, we must 
abandon ourselves to its demands and possibilities 
and privileges. 

Abandomnent to the ivorh That means not to weary 
though success be long deferred. The apostles wait- 
ed ten days for the revival which shook the city of 
Jerusalem when it came. Doubtless those were days 
that tried their faith, and taxed their patience^ and 
tested their consecration. 

Many of the most gracious revivals of religion ever 
known were weeks and even months developing. Fin- 
ney says of a meeting which he conducted three 
weeks: "My stay was too short to secure a general 
work of grace." Three days exhaust the faith and 
zeal of some unless they see the church full and the 
altar crowded and the city stirred; but this God-hon- 
ored and generation-blessed servant of Jesus Christ 
says that three weeks was "too short" a time for 
him "to secure a general work of grace" at a cer- 
tain city. 

This writer knows a member of the Virginia An- 
nual Conference who felt led of God to begin a 
protracted meeting in the church of which he was 
preacher in charge. The weather was bad, and the 
17 



258 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

people suggested a postponement of the services. 
The preacher answered that he was not free to post- 
pone the work, that they must have and would have 
a revival then. He called upon God for an outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit upon the church and commu- 
nity; and the people, with old Virginia loyalty, re- 
nounced their convictions that the time did not suit 
and went to church at the ringing of the bell. The 
pastor was his own evangelist. The weather got 
worse, and worse. Virginia loyalty dies hard, but 
there are some things too much for it. The people 
argued and insisted and pleaded with the preacher 
to put off the meeting. There had been no indica- 
tion of interest, either in or out of the church. The 
preacher answered them by announcing that serv- 
ices would go on. The congregation now began to 
decrease, and even the old "stand-bys" were often 
absent. Discouragements of this character continu- 
ing three weeks were not enough to disturb the 
preacher who believed in God. It is not too much 
to say that some thought him very ridiculous, as 
well as hard-headed. But he knew, and he saw 
The things unknown to feeble sense, 
• Unseen by reason's glimmering ray. 

He saw mountains thronging with the charioteers 
of God; and above them he saw the stars in their 
courses fighting on his side; and he went into the 
fourth week with more faith than when he began. 
That week there were over forty conversions; the 
next week there were over eighty conversions; the 
sixth week there were again over forty conversions. 
The sixth was the last week of the protracted meet- 
ing. There were one hundred and seventy conver- 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WORK. 259 

sions in all, and the same uumber of additions to the 
church. Nor does that represent all the good that 
was done. That congregation has more faith in God 
than ever. No matter what the weather is, or how 
dull the people seem, or how indistinct are the signs, 
they are ready to wait through long and trying sea- 
sons the baring of the Arm that brings salvation and 
the opening of the Hand that makes full. 

It is more true in spiritual warfare than any other, 
what the Duke of Wellington said: "That side will 
win that keeps hammering the longest." We must 
have the spirit of that chaplain, daring the war be- 
tween the States, who was ordered by a frightened 
general to burn the transportation and supplies which 
had been left in his charge, and who bravely an- 
swered: "No, sir; no, sir; the boys haven't been 
whipped yet! " Nor were they. We must say to our- 
selves, and say to others, when tempted to give up the 
efforts to promote a revival: "No, sir; no, sir; prayer 
hasn't failed yet; nor has faith been all vain. The 
windows of heaven will open, and pour us out a 
blessing that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it." 

Our extremity is always God's opportunity. He 
knows just when to come to our help; just when to 
let the light shine; just when to say, "Be it done." 
We can and must persevere, and wait his pleasure. 
We will not persevere and wait in vain. We shall 
reap in due season, if we faint not. Discouragement 
and failure are to be words unknown. We must not 
be dismayed though "our Lord is now rejected and 
by the world disowned." His crowning day is com- 
ing! We do not fight as those that beat the air. 



260 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

Suddenly help will appear and make ours the longed- 
for, the fought-for, the waited-for victory. 

Abandonment to the work. That means not to weary 
on account of difficulties. Many difficulties and va- 
ried difficulties will interpose. They defy anticipa- 
tion. There will be small difficulties and large diffi- 
culties — w^orldly and spiritual, domestic and foreign, 
respectable and otherwise. Expected sympathy and 
support will be denied; the devil will start some- 
thing, a dance or other damning diversion; heresy, 
formalism, and infidelity will take counsel together 
against the work of the Lord; and sin and ignorance 
will rage. In revivals that this writer has conduct- 
ed he has had to contend with and neutralize the 
influence of backslidden professors, crazy choristers, 
unsympathetic communities, lying opposers, easily 
tired helpers, and never tired enemies. He has been 
put out of churches, had tents blown down, and 
lights cut off; he has suffered everything but bodily 
injury, and that has been threatened; but he has 
never known an obstacle that was insurmountable, or 
a difficulty that was insuperable, or an opposition 
that was invincible, or anything to be afraid of in 
the line of duty. 

Eevivals of religion do not depend upon auspicious 
circumstances and favorable conditions. Nothing is 
too hard for the Lord. The sword of the Spirit 
makes its way through difficulties as lightning bolts 
through summer clouds. We must not underesti- 
mate difficulties. They will try us and test us. But 
there is no need to fear. The Lord of hosts is with 
us, and if we stand fast in the faith and quit us as 
men, we will not fail. 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WORK. 261 

When they told Napoleon that he could not carry 
his army over the Alps, he answered with character- 
istic determination: "There are no Alps! " He spoke 
truly. When the British House of Commons hissed 
and sneered to his seat Disraeli, who was making his 
first speech, he ground his teeth, and said: '^You'll 
hear me yet! " They did, and all the world with 
them. Jonathan Edwards could direct religious 
movements despite the ire and maledictions o£ little 
Northampton. Charles G. Finney was not hindered 
in the service to which he for Christ's sake was con- 
secrated by the editors, controversialists, committees, 
presbyteries, and synods who opposed him. A great- 
er than Finney or Edwards or Disraeli or Napoleon, 
who confessed that he knew not what things would 
befall him, save that the Holy Ghost witnessed that 
in every city bonds and afflictions awaited him, 
yet made boast: "I can do all things through Christ 
which strengtheneth me." And ''the world turned 
upside down" attests that the boast was not that of a 
dreamer. What are difficulties? Jesus Christ him- 
self says: "All things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth." 

^'Abandonment to the work,'" That means not to 

weary, though we suffer loss. It means 

Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
All to leave and follow thee. 

According to the Lord, one soul is worth more than 
the whole world. Then, the life that has been suc- 
cessful in winning one soul for God is more to be 
coveted than that one that has piled up the riches of 
CrcKSus, or gathered the distinctions of the world. 

Humboldt sold his inheritance that he might have 



262 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

means for a journey of exploration and discovery to 
South America. When Agassiz was offered a large 
sum of money for a course of lectures, he answered: 
"I haven't time to make money." Sam Jones was 
besought by a lecture bureau to sign a contract for 
one hundred lectures at fifty thousand dollars. The 
evangelist returned the contract unsigned. He was 
then asked to stipulate a sum for the series of lec- 
tures, and declined to do so. A minister of the gos- 
pel was warned by a friend that the course he was 
pursuing would result in loss to him. He said: "I 
don't care; I must be true to my mission," Some- 
what irritated, his friend demanded: "You remem- 
ber what became of 'Don't Care? ' " He answered: 
" Yes, I remember. He went up on Calvary and was 
crucified between thieves; and I am ready to be 
crucified with him." 

If home comes between us and the work of God, 
home must go. It is better that we be pillowless 
here than that souls for whom Christ died be out- 
casts on the shores of eternity. If money comes be- 
tween us and that work, money must go. The Mas- 
ter never had a purse, nor need for one. No matter 
what the interest is that intervenes, we must despise 
it and be diligent to show ourselves approved unto 
God. That is a poor service which costs nothing. 
To follow Jesus, Matthew left his place at " the re- 
ceipt of custom;" Peter, James, and John forsook their 
fishing boats and nets; Luke gave up the practice of 
medicine; Barnabas sold his houses and lands; Paul 
renounced his ambition to excel as one of the masters 
of Israel. They went out, every one, "naked, poor, 
despised, forsaken." So must we; yes, so must we! 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WOKK. 263 

The signals lighted by worldly interests guide not to 
the port we seek. 

It sometimes happens that the voluntary assump- 
tion o£ loss for Christ's sake has an influence to j)er- 
suade and constrain when everything else had failed. 
Evangelist Schoolfield is one of the most successful 
toilers in the vineyard of the Lord. He was a busi- 
ness man of Danville, Va. He gives his service to 
the church and the world, receiving nothing as com- 
pensation. The Richmond Christian AdvoccUe c[uotes 
*' a gentleman of the world, far away from Christian- 
ity, a man of large affairs," as saying of the devoted 
evangelist: "I know him. He kept close to a dollar 
in trade, loved profits, loved mone}^, didn't throw any 
of it away. If he broke off from his engrossing pur- 
suit after the currency and now hunts for sinners, he 
must be in dead earnest. What he says means much 
to men like me." The Advocate adds: ''Here's the 
secret of his success in a nutshell. When the world 
sees the church encircled by crosses crucifying the 
purses of the pews — a synonym for sincerity — then 
men will fall down like Dagon before the ark." 

God is glorified when our interests are brought 
into subjection to the interests of Jesus Christ and 
his kingdom. Revivalists who would obtain any 
goodly success must adjust themselves to this law 
of loss. They must take no thought for the morrow, 
lose coats and cloaks without grief, hate houses and 
lands, joyfully submit to the spoiling of their goods, 
remembering how they have in heaven more endur- 
ing substance and estates that are fairer than day. 

Ahandonment to the tcorJc! That means not to 
weary on account of persecution. Persecution is 



264 KEYIVALS OF RELIGION. 

inevitable. Said the Master: ''Because ye are not 
of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
therefore the world hateth you." (John xv. 19.) 
Paul reminded Timothy, w^hom he exhorted to do 
the work of an evangelist: ''All that will live godly 
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecation." (2 Tim. 
iii. 12.) In the early days of the world's evangeli- 
zation, this truth was more palpable than it is in our 
times. The bolts of magisterial and sacerdotal and 
popular vengeance were let loose upon all the fol- 
lowers of Jesus. Naturally, they fell most fre- 
quently upon the apostles, who, from their prom- 
inence, were most exposed, as well as from the fact 
that as soon as the gospel was established in one 
place they went on to another where the same perils 
w^ere to be encountered. The counsels of Providence 
ordained that the gospel should vindicate and illus- 
trate its authority and power, in its earliest history, 
by meeting and achieving a signal conquest over 
the combined opposition of all antagonistic forces. 
Times have greatly changed, and yet the same gen- 
eral law is unrepealed, "that we must through much 
tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." (Acts 
xiv. 22.) Hence those churches which are most 
spiritual, those ministers who preach the necessity 
of entire devotedness to Christ and the privileges of 
conscious communion w^ith God, and all who have 
declared war on unbelief and sin, are now and ever 
will be marks for the enmity of Pharisaical formal- 
ism and unsanctified philosophy. "Whitefield said 
the word "persecution" simply meant "apostolic 
treatment." 

Every revival since the day of Pentecost has had 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WORK. 265 

to make its way through much and grievous perse- 
cution. The world, the flesh, and the devil are still 
allied against the truth as it is in Jesus. Caughey 
says that he soon learned that those who waged war 
on hell would stir up and have to suffer the rage of 
hell. Gough observes: *' There never yet was an 
enterprise that touched men's interests, appetites, or 
passions, that did not subject its promoters to per- 
secution." And Sam Jones asks: "Where is there a 
successful man in any calling of life who has not 
either been swallowed by a whale or almost nibbled 
to death by minnows? I have sometimes envied 
Jonah." 

Persecution need not discourage revivalists. It is 
a fearful thing to oppose a revival of religion. Bet- 
ter for the persecutor had he never been born. The 
judgments of Almighty God are never heavier and 
never swifter than when let loose upon those who 
dare to dispute the progress of his kingdom and do 
his anointed harm. Some instances of this inter- 
ference in behalf of his servants and their labors 
are of the most impressive character. One from 
Finney may be given: "Friday afternoon, before 
presbytery adjourned, a clergyman arose and made 
a violent speech against the revival, as it was going 
on. What he said greatly shocked and grieved the 
Christian people who were present. They felt like 
falling on their faces before God, and crying to him 
to prevent what he had said from doing any mischief. 
The presbytery adjourned just at evening. Some of 
the members went home, and others remained over- 
night. Christians gave themselves to prayer. There 
was a great crying to God that night that he would 



266 REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

counteract any evil influence that miglit result from 
the speech. The next morning this man was found 
dead in his bed." In one of oar Florida cities, a 
-physician who professed and lived atheism got tired 
of a revival that had been in progress at the Metho- 
dist church long enough, according to his views. 
Eev. John B. Ley, a model of apostolic zeal and 
sacred eloquence, was the pastor. During an even- 
ing service the physician led a body of lewd and 
ignorant fellows into pulling a fire engine close to 
the church and shooting a large stream of water 
through an open window upon the immense congre- 
gation assembled there. That night, or the next, the 
physician was suddenly taken with bleeding of the 
lungs, and crying, "Oh, I'm gone!" fell down dead. 
The boys whom he had enticed into the assault upon 
the revival now took alarm, and sought the pastor of 
the church with apologies and requests for prayer, 
and as an indication and public avowal of their re- 
pentance, came to church en masse, and occupied 
pews reserved for them. The wisest of men, and 
an inspired writer, says, "Judgments are prepared 
for scorners." (Prov. xix. 29.) A New Testament 
writer says, "There is a sin unto death." (1 John 
V. 16.) 

"Fret not thyself because of evil-doers." (Psalm 
xxxvii. 1.) " No weapon that is formed against thee 
shall prosper." (Isaiah liv. 17.) Remember Mil- 
ton, how he said; "Still bear up and steer right on." 
And the brave old martyr of Antioeh: "Stand like a 
beaten anvil. It is the part of a great champion to 
be stricken and to conquer." Luther, at the Diet of 
Worms, had but one answer: "Here I stand. I can- 



ABANDONMENT TO THE \YOEK. 267 

not do otherwise. God help me. Amen." Bunyan, 
put in prison for the testimony of Jesus Christ, re- 
plied to those who lout him there: "If you let me out 
of prison to-day, I will preach the gospel again to- 
morrow, by the grace of God." When Oncken was 
summoned before the burgomaster of Hamburg, he 
was commanded to quit holding religious meetings; 
and the burgomaster said: ''As long as I can move 
my little finger, I will put you down." Oncken an- 
swered: "I see your little finger; and I see also a 
great Arm which you cannot see. As long as the 
great arm of God is lifted in our behalf, your little 
finger will have no terror." 

Courage, soldier of the cross. You have nothing 
to fear. Vain the rage of devils, vain the wrath of 
the world; for "'tis truth alone is strong." Perse- 
cution could not keep Joseph from dreaming, nor 
David from singing, id or the prophets from testify- 
ing, nor the apostles from preaching. Nor must it 
delay or discourage you in the help of the Lord 
against the mighty. 

Ahandonment to the tcorh. That means what Cor- 
tez meant when he invaded Mexico and burned his 
ships. It means what Warwick meant in that battle 
when he dismounted and thrust his sword into the 
heart of his horse. It means what meant the Ro- 
man sentinel who stood at the city gate of Pompeii, 
where his captain placed him, still grasping his weap- 
on and keeping his guard, though the earth was shak- 
ing beneath him and the skies pouring down fire. It 
means what meant the reply that a color-bearer gave 
his officer: he was ordered to plant his flag in a very 
perilous position, and answered, with a gallant salute, 



268 . REVIVALS OF EELIGION. 

" I will do it, or tell you at the judgment bar of God 
why I failed." It means what meant the river pilot 
who held his buruing steamer to the shore while the 
passengers escaped, though his hair and beard and 
clothes were burned off of him, and he knew that for 
himself no escape was possible. For a moment be- 
fore he fell the cloud of smoke parted and disclosed 
him gripping the wheel, his eyes brimming with joy, 
his face to look upon as the face of an angel, and he 
seemed to be saying : "Aye, aye, Lord, I die; but I 
am saving all of them!" It means what Mrs. Ogle 
meant when she resisted those she loved the best. 
She was a telegraph operator at Johnstown, Pa., that 
day the terrible deluge of water carried ruin and 
death through the beautiful valley of the Conemaugh. 
She stood at her post in one of the tow^ers of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad depot, with her finger upon the 
instrument, flashing warning of the advancing flood 
to the towns and cities below. To her own home on 
the hill a private line was stretched. Over it swept 
the pleading of children there: *^ Mother, come home 
and save yourself! " God oi]ly knows what a sharp 
sword that was in the mother's heart. But there was 
no hesitation. She touched the key and answered: 
'' I must not. My life is worth more to God and the 
world now and here than ever it will be again." The 
tow^er went down before the shoulders of the flood, 
and carried with it the woman brave and faithful 
unto death. It means what meant engineer James 
Hoot when the storm of fire swept through the for- 
est upon him and his train. He knew that failure at 
the throttle meant death to the four hundred men, 
women, and children crowding the coaches for which 



ABANDONMENT TO THE WORK. 269 

his engine was responsible. Arms of flame reached 
np and caught his clothing. Three times he fell to 
the floor, overcome by the intolerable heat. The 
woodwork of the cars was on flre; the throttle blis- 
tered his hand when he touched it; but with resolute 
brain and unfaltering heart, he refused to give up 
the race for life; and but for his abandonment to 
duty, four hundred more names would have gone to 
the death list. This is the spirit that revivalists 
must have. They must understand and feel that the 
possibilities extended them in a revival of religion 
must be developed at whatever cost; that there must 
be no hesitation, no looking and no turning back; no 
thought of surrender or retreat; nor reckon that the 
sufferings and hardnesses to which they may be sub- 
jected are worthy to be compared with the distinc- 
tions they enjoy as servants of God and ambassadors 
of Jesus Christ. 

Abandonment to the tvork. The Holy Spirit must 
open the meaning of these words and give them ap- 
propriate emphasis. He can and he will to all who 
aspire to learn of him. Abandonment to the work. 
On this pivots the revival of religion. This is the 
price of souls. This is the price of the world that 
now lieth in the wicked one. This is the price that 
we must pay if we would lay at the feet of our Lord 
Jesus Christ the chief desire of his heart. This 
actualizes the love which is the essential spirit of 
Christianity, and will make its blessings flow as far 
as the curse is found and the will of God extends. 
The price is not too much. Let all who read, and all 
who hear, and all who believe bring the price. 



